The  Southern  Slav's  Appeal 

(The  Southern  Slavs— Serbs,  Croats,  Slovenes) 

PUBLISHED    ON    BEHALF    OF    THE    "JUGOSLAV   COMMITTEE"   BY  MILAN   MARJANOVI6. 
CLEVELAND,  O.,  NOVEMBER,   1916.  OFFICES:  1402  E.  40th  ST.,  CLEVELAND,  O. 

NUMBER    1.      THE    SOUTHERN    SLAVS,    OR    JUGOSLAVS,  AIMS   FOR   LIBERTY  AND   UNITY. 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAVS    TERRITORY    IN    S.    W.  EUROPE. 


THE  JUGOSLAV-TERRITORY 
JU603LOYEM3KAZMUA 

LETERRlTOmE  tOUSOSl&YE 


THERE  WERE  MORE  THEN  13,000,000  JUGOSLAVS  BEFORE  THE  WAR.  THERE  WERE  5,000,000 
JUGOSLAVS  LIVING  IN  SERBIA  AND  MONTENEGRO,  MORE  THEN  7,000,000  IN  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 
(IN  BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA,  CROATIA-SLAVONIA,  SOUTHERN  HUNGARY,  DALMATIA,  ISTRIA, 
TRIEST,  GORIZIA-GRADISCA,  CARNIOLA,  SOUTHERN  CORINTHIA  AND  SOUTHERN  STYRIA), 
MORE  THEN  200,000  IN  ITALY  (UDIXE)  AND  GREECE  (VODENA,  SALENIK)  AND  800,000  IN 
BOTH  AMERICAS  (700,000  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES). -^THE  NATIONAL  TERRITORY  OF  THE 
JUGOSLAVS  IN  EUROPE  COVERS  THE  AREA  OF  MORE  THEN  96,000  SQUARE  MILES. 


SERBO-CROAT  ORTHOGRAPHY, 
i  =  sh  in  "ship."  c  =  ts  in  "cats." 

5  =  ch  in  "church."  %  =  j  in  French  "jour." 

c  =  ditto  (softer).  j=y  in  "your." 


Printed     by    "HLAS", 
CLEVELAND.   OHIO 


AMERICAN  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


"When  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it 
becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve 
the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them 
with  another,  and  to  assume,  among  the 
powers  of  the  earth,  the  separate  and  equal 
station  to  which  the  Laws  of  Nature  and  of 
Nature's  God  entitles  them,  a  decent  respect 
the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they 
should  declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to 
the  separation. 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident, 
that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  un- 
alienable  rights;  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty  and  the  .pursuit  of  happiness.  That  to 
secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted 
among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed;  that,  whenever 
any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive 


of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to 
alter  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new 
government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  prin- 
ciples, and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form, 
as  to  them  -shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect 
their  safety  and  happiness.  Prudence  indeed, 
will  dictate  that  governments  long  establish- 
ed should  not  be  changed  for  light  and  trans- 
ient causes ;  and,  according,  all  experience  hath 
shown,  that  a  mankind  are  more  disposed  to 
suffer,  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to 
right  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to 
which  they  are  accustomed.  But,  when  long 
train  of  abuses  and  usurpations,  pursuing  in- 
variably the  same  object,  evinces  a  design  to 
reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is 
their  right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such 
government,  and  to  provide  new  guards  for 
their  future  security." 

Declaration  of  Independance  1776. 


AMERICA'S  PART  IN  FUTURE  PEACE. 


' ' "We  are  participants,  whether  we 

would  or  not,  in  the  life  of  the  world.  The 
interests  of  all  nations  are  our  own  also.  We 
are  partners  with  the  rest.  What  affects  man- 
kind is  inevitably  our  affair  as  well  as  the 
affair  of  the  nations  of  Europe  and  of  Asia.  . . 

....  The  nations  of  the  world  have  become 
each  other's  neighbors.  It  is  to  their  interest 
that  they  should  understand  each  other.  In 
order  that  they  may  understand  each  other  it 
is  imperative  that  they  should  agree  o  cooper- 
ate in  a  common  cause  and  that  they  should  so 
act  that  the  guiding  principles  of  that  common 
cause  shall  be  even-handed  and  impartial 
justice.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  thought  of 
America.  This  is  what  we,  ourselves,  will  say 
when  there  comes  proper  occasion  to  say  it. ... 

We  believe  these  fundamental  things : 

First,  that  every  people  has  a  right  to 
choose  the  sovereignity  under  which  they  shall 
live.  Like  other  nations,  we  have,  ourselves, 
no  doubt  once  and  again  offended  against 
that  principle  when  for  a  little  while  controll- 
ed by  selfish  passion,  as  our  franker  historians 


have  been  honorable  enough  to  admit;  but  it 
has  become  more  and  more  our  rule  of  life 
and  action. 

Second,  that  the  small  States  of  the  world 
have  a  right  to  enjoy  the  same  respect  for 
their  sovereignity  and  for  their  territorial  in- 
tegrity that  great  and  powerful  nations  expect 
and  insist  upon. 

And,  third,  that  the  world  has  a  right  to 
be  free  from  every  disturbance  of  its  peace 
that  has  its  origin  in  aggression  and  disregard 
of  the  rights  of  peoples  and  nations. 

So  sincerely  do  we  believe  in  these  things 
that  I  am  sure  that  I  speak  the  mind  and  wish 
of  the  people  of  America  when  I  say  that  the 
United  States  is  willing  to  become  a  partner 
in  any  feasible  association  of  nations  formed 
in  order  to  realize  these  objects  and  make 

them  secure  against  violation " 

From  the  Speech  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  U.  S.  A.  W.  Wilson, 
discussing  Peace  and  America's 
part  in  a  future  league  to  pre- 
vent war.  May  26th  1916. 


KING  PETER  I.  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  AMERICA. 


"I  have  long  wanted  very  much  to  speak 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  to  the  great  heart 
of  America,  which  is  so  deeply  moved  over  the 
fate  of  Serbia  and  has  done  so  much  for  our 
unhappy  people.  It  seems  to  me  that  somehow 
your  compatriots  have  been  able  to  divine  in 
the  struggles  of  a  people,  simple  and  rugged, 
but  stubbornly  individualistic,  the  same  sacred 
fire  which  inspired  the  first  Americans  300 
years  ago  to  leave  Europe  to  erect  in  the  wild- 
erness of  America  a  home  for  freedom.  They 
understand  us.  We  speak  the  same  language 
of  liberty. 

"And  those  of  your  compatriots  who  have 
come  to  us  as  doctors,  nurses — the  American 
Red  Cross,  the  Serbian  Relief  and  Sanitary 
Commissions — all  these  brave  young  people, 
who  have  so  gladly  given  their  young  lives 
to  fight  typhus  and  the  sickening  effects  of 
shells  and  epidemics,  of  whom  not  a  few  rest 
forever  in  Serbian  soil — was  it  not  they  who 
brought  to  us  the  soul  of  a  kindred  people 
from  America?" 

''I  do  not  know  if  it  is  quite  understood 
in  America  what  it  is  all  about  that  almost 
entire  Europe  is  at  war.  But  I  will  tell  you  in 
a  word;  it  is  the  supreme,  the  last  effort  of 
feudalism,  a  fight  to  a  finish  between  the 
feudalism  of  yesterday  and  the  freedom  of  to- 
morrow. So  that  is  why  war  had  to  break  out 
on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  and  not  elsewhere, 
for  the  Danube  separates  by  so  little  the  most 
intransigent  feudalism,  maintained  by  un- 


worthy intrigues,  like  those  of  the  smaller 
Italian  States  in  the  Middle  Ages,  from  the 
most  stubborn  ideal  of  liberty,  implanted  in 
those  ready  to  fight  to  the  last  man  to  realize 
that  idea. 

"Yet  we  have  always  wanted  to  live  at 
peace  with  the  Austrians. 

"But  it  is  of  the  very  nature  of  a  feudal 
state  that  liberty  cannot  and  must  not  flourish 
in  the  same  vicinity,  and  Austria  arranged 
all  that  in  the  time  of  the  Obrenovitches.  'Ser- 
bia was  made  merely  a  tributary  to  Austria. 
She  was  no  longer  free  at  all.  By  the  treaty 
of  1881  she  renounced  all  her  rights.  Today, 
again  Austria  still  seeks  to  follow  toward  Ser- 
bia crushed  the  same  policy  as  before — to 
create  of  Serbia,  Montenegro,  Bosnia,  and 
Herzegovina  an  empire  of  vassal  States  for 
the  benefit  of  a  mediaeval  feudal  nobility.  But 
we  cannot  stand  that.  We  are  peasants,  but 
free  peasants. 

"I  am  King.  I  come  from  the  people,  but 
a  heroic  people  who  preferred  bitter  death  to 
comfortable,  shameful  slavery.  My  grand- 
father was  a  peasant,  and  I  am  prouder  of 
that  than  of  my  throne.  Crowns  are  lost,  brj 
the  pure,  clean  blood  of  those  who  have  lived 
of  the  earth  does  not  die  out." 

(King  Peter  I.  of  Serbia,  to 
the  representatives  of  the 
American  Press.  February 
1916.) 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


The  Jugoslavs  are:  the  Serbians,  the 
Croatians,  the  Slovenians  and  the  Bulgarians. 
But  the  Bulgarians,  pursuing  as  they  are  a 
separatistic  and  imperialistic  State  policy,  do 
not,  at  the  present  time,  belong  to  this  move- 
ment, nor  do  they  in  the  contemporary  policy 
of  the  Jugoslav  Unification ;  consequently,  it 
is  only  the  Serbians,  the  Croatians  and  the 
Slovenians  who  are  the  bearers  of  that  idea, 
though  the  central  group  is  formed  by  the 
Serbians  and  the  Croatians  alone. 

The  Serbo-Croatians  are  absolutely  one 
and  the  same  people  by  their  blood  relations, 
by  the  identity  of  their  spoken  and  literary 
language  and  their  aspirations  • —  irrespective 
of  the  territories  in  which  they  live.  The 
Slovenians  belong  to  the  same  race  with  a 
slightly  different  literary  dialect.  At  this 
moment  the  matter  could  be  summarised  thus : 
the  Serbians  are  considered  as  the  Orthodox 
South-Slavs  and  the  Croats  the  Catholic  South- 
Slavs. 

Before  this  war  there  were  about 
13,000,000  Jugoslavs,  of  which  number  5,000,- 
000  were  living  in  the  Kingdom  of  Serbia  and 
Crnagora  (or  Montenegro),  8,000,000  under 
the  rule  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy 
of  which  1,000,000  abroad,  as  emmigrants.  In 
the  present  war  nearly  2,000,000  Jugoslavs  on 
both  Serbian  and  Austro-Hungarian  sides  have 
been  invalidated  and  have  died  partly  of 
cholera,  thyphus,  and  other  diseases;  partly 
through  famine  and  starvation;  partly  in 
prison,  on  gallows  or  in  cold  blood  massacres ; 
partly  again  in  actual  battles. 

The  Jugoslav  idea  demands  that,  at  the 
time  of  peace  negotiations,  all  the  regions,  in- 
habited by  the  South  Slavs  in  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority  and  in  compact  masses,  be 
granted  a  full  liberty  and  united  into 
one  single  and  democratically  ruled  State. 
Such  a  State  would  comprise  a  territory 
of  about  96,000  square  miles  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  13,000,000,  and  would  consti- 
tute an  element  of  an  adequate  equilibrium  in 
the  South-East  of  Europe.  Any  kind  of  tear- 
ing, chipping  or  exclusion  would  be  unjust, 
for  the  intimate  connection  (geographic, 
strategic  and  economic),  existing  between  all 


the  parts  of  Jugoslav  lands,  is  such  as  not  to 
allow  of  any  tearing  or  exclusion,  and  any 
separation  of  however  small  a  part  would 
greatly  hinder  the  developement  of  the  en- 
tirety. 

After  the  infamous  ultimatum  of  Austria, 
and  for  the  idea  of  Jugoslav  liberation  and 
unification,  the  free  and  independent  King- 
dom of  Serbia  has  accepted  the  war.  This  is 
in  conformity  with  the  National  Programme 
of  Serbia's  State  Policy,  and  was  proclaimed 
in  the  expose  of  the  Serbian  Goverment  (Nov. 
1914)  and  the  Serbian  National  Skupstina  made 
in  Aug.  1915  and  Sept.  1916  as  well  as  the  sol- 
emn declarations  of  the  Prince  Eegent  Alexan- 
der and  of  the  Prime  Minister  Pasic  in  Paris 
and  London  in  the  Spring  of  1916 ;  besides,  that 
idea  is  supported  by  the  "Jugo-Slav  Com- 
mittee" in  London  which  is  the  representative 
of  the  Jugoslavs  from  Austria-Hungary. 
Consequently,  Serbia  to  day  is  a  pioneer  and 
mandatory  for  realizing  the  idea  of  the  South- 
ern Slavs  freedom  and  unity. 

The  Jugoslav  Committee  in  London  is  the 
central  and  supreme  representative  of  the 
Jugoslavs  from  Austria  Hungary  in  their 
desire  to  liberate  and  unite  themselves  with 
their  brothers  from  Serbia  and  Montenegro. 
The  committee  consists  of  well  known  and 
popular  political  leaders,  members  of  parlia- 
ments, intellectual  workers  and  financial-com- 
mercial men  of  good  standing,  the  greatest 
part  of  whom  have  been  working  upon  that 
idea  for  decades.  The  Committee  numbers 
now  25  members,  of  which  15  Croatians,  7 
Serbians  and  3  Slovenians.  All  the  Jugoslav 
provinces  of  Austria-Hungary  are  represent- 
ed :  there  being  10  members  from  Dalmatia, 
3  from  Istria,  1  from  Goricka,  2  from  Trieste 
(Trst),  1  from  Rieka  (Fkime),  3  from  Croatia, 
1  from  Corinthia,  3  from  Bosnia-Herzegovina 
and  1  from  South  Hungary.  The  Committee, 
as  well  as  its  individual  members,  have  in  their 
possession  confidential  authorizations  and  full 
powers  from  the  leading  circles  of  all  the 
different  Serbians,  Croatian  and  Slovenian 
political  parties  in  the  Jugoslav  provinces  in 
Austria-Hungary.  It  is  also  in  accord  with  a 
certain  number  of  the  highest  representatives 


KING  PETER  I.  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  AMERICA. 


"I  have  long  wanted  very  much  to  speak 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  to  the  great  heart 
of  America,  which  is  so  deeply  moved  over  the 
fate  of  Serbia  and  has  done  so  much  for  our 
unhappy  people.  It  seems  to  me  that  somehow 
your  compatriots  have  been  able  to  divine  in 
the  struggles  of  a  people,  simple  and  rugged, 
but  stubbornly  individualistic,  the  same  sacred 
fire  which  inspired  the  first  Americans  300 
years  ago  to  leave  Europe  to  erect  in  the  wild- 
erness of  America  a  home  for  freedom.  They 
understand  us.  We  speak  the  same  language 
of  liberty. 

"And  those  of  your  compatriots  who  have 
come  to  us  as  doctors,  nurses — the  American 
Red  Cross,  the  Serbian  Relief  and  Sanitary 
Commissions — all  these  brave  young  people, 
who  have  so  gladly  given  their  young  lives 
to  fight  typhus  and  the  sickening  effects  of 
shells  and  epidemics,  of  whom  not  a  few  rest 
forever  in  Serbian  soil — was  it  not  they  who 
brought  to  us  the  soul  of  a  kindred  people 
from  America?" 

"I  do  not  know  if  it  is  quite  understood 
in  America  what  it  is  all  about  that  almost 
entire  Europe  is  at  war.  But  I  will  tell  you  in 
a  word ;  it  is  the  supreme,  the  last  effort  of 
feudalism,  a  fight  to  a  finish  between  the 
feudalism  of  yesterday  and  the  freedom  of  to- 
morrow. So  that  is  why  war  had  to  break  out 
on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  and  not  elsewhere, 
for  the  Danube  separates  by  so  little  the  most 
intransigent  feudalism,  maintained  by  un- 


worthy intrigues,  like  those  of  the  smaller 
Italian  States  in  the  Middle  Ages,  from  the 
most  stubborn  ideal  of  liberty,  implanted  in 
those  ready  to  fight  to  the  last  man  to  realize 
that  idea. 

''Yet  we  have  always  wanted  to  live  at 
peace  with  the  Austrians. 

"But  it  is  of  the  very  nature  of  a  feudal 
state  that  liberty  cannot  and  must  not  flourish 
in  the  same  vicinity,  and  Austria  arranged 
all  that  in  the  time  of  the  Obrenovitches.  'Ser- 
bia was  made  merely  a  tributary  to  Austria. 
She  was  no  longer  free  at  all.  By  the  treaty 
of  1881  she  renounced  all  her  rights.  Today, 
again  Austria  still  seeks  to  follow  toward  Ser- 
bia crushed  the  same  policy  as  before — to 
create  of  Serbia,  Montenegro,  Bosnia,  and 
Herzegovina  an  empire  of  vassal  States  for 
the  benefit  of  a  mediaeval  feudal  nobility.  But 
we  cannot  stand  that.  We  are  peasants,  but 
free  peasants. 

"I  am  King.  I  come  from  the  people,  but 
a  heroic  people  who  preferred  bitter  death  to 
comfortable,  shameful  slavery.  My  grand- 
father was  a  peasant,  and  I  am  prouder  of 
that  than  of  my  throne.  Crowns  are  lost,  bvj 
the  pure,  clean  blood  of  those  who  have  lived 
of  the  earth  does  not  die  out." 

(King  Peter  I.  of  Serbia,  to 
the  representatives  of  the 
American  Press.  February 
1916.) 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


The  Jugoslavs  are:  the  Serbians,  the 
Croatians,  the  Slovenians  and  the  Bulgarians. 
But  the  Bulgarians,  pursuing  as  they  are  a 
separatistic  and  imperialistic  State  policy,  do 
not,  at  the  present  time,  belong  to  this  move- 
ment, nor  do  they  in  the  contemporary  policy 
of  the  Jugoslav  Unification ;  consequently,  it 
is  only  the  Serbians,  the  Croatians  and  the 
Slovenians  who  are  the  bearers  of  that  idea, 
though  the  central  group  is  formed  by  the 
Serbians  and  the  Croatians  alone. 

The  Serbo-Croatians  are  absolutely  one 
and  the  same  people  by  their  blood  relations, 
by  the  identity  of  their  spoken  and  literary 
language  and  their  aspirations  —  irrespective 
of  the  territories  in  which  they  live.  The 
Slovenians  belong  to  the  same  race  with  a 
slightly  different  literary  dialect.  At  this 
moment  the  matter  could  be  summarised  thus : 
the  Serbians  are  considered  as  the  Orthodox 
South-Slavs  and  the  Croats  the  Catholic  South- 
Slavs. 

Before  this  war  there  were  about 
13,000,000  Jugoslavs,  of  which  number  5,000,- 
000  were  living  in  the  Kingdom  of  Serbia  and 
Crnagora  (or  Montenegro),  8,000,000  under 
the  rule  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy 
of  which  1,000,000  abroad,  as  emmigrants.  In 
the  present  war  nearly  2,000,000  Jugoslavs  on 
both  Serbian  and  Austro-Hungarian  sides  have 
been  invalidated  and  have  died  partly  of 
cholera,  thyphus,  and  other  diseases;  partly 
through  famine  and  starvation;  partly  in 
prison,  on  gallows  or  in  cold  blood  massacres; 
partly  again  in  actual  battles. 

The  Jugoslav  idea  demands  that,  at  the 
time  of  peace  negotiations,  all  the  regions,  in- 
habited by  the  South  Slavs  in  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority  and  in  compact  masses,  be 
granted  a  full  liberty  and  united  into 
one  single  and  democratically  ruled  State. 
Such  a  State  would  comprise  a  territory 
of  about  96,000  square  miles  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  13,000,000,  and  would  consti- 
tute an  element  of  an  adequate  equilibrium  in 
the  South-East  of  Europe.  Any  kind  of  tear- 
ing, chipping  or  exclusion  would  be  unjust, 
for  the  intimate  connection  (geographic, 
strategic  and  economic),  existing  between  all 


the  parts  of  Jugoslav  lands,  is  such  as  not  to 
allow  of  any  tearing  or  exclusion,  and  any 
separation  of  however  small  a  part  would 
greatly  hinder  the  developement  of  the  en- 
tirety. 

After  the  infamous  ultimatum  of  Austria, 
and  for  the  idea  of  Jugoslav  liberation  and 
unification,  the  free  and  independent  King- 
dom of  Serbia  has  accepted  the  war.  This  is 
in  conformity  with  the  National  Programme 
of  Serbia's  State  Policy,  and  was  proclaimed 
in  the  expose  of  the  Serbian  Goverment  (Nov. 
1914)  and  the  Serbian  National  Skupstina  made 
in  Aug.  1915  and  Sept.  1916  as  well  as  the  sol- 
emn declarations  of  the  Prince  Regent  Alexan- 
der and  of  the  Prime  Minister  Pasic  in  Paris 
and  London  in  the  Spring  of  1916 ;  besides,  that 
idea  is  supported  by  the  "Jugo-Slav  Com- 
mittee" in  London  which  is  the  representative 
of  the  Jugoslavs  from  Austria-Hungary. 
Consequently,  Serbia  to  day  is  a  pioneer  and 
mandatory  for  realizing  the  idea  of  the  South- 
ern Slavs  freedom  and  unity. 

The  Jugoslav  Committee  in  London  is  the 
central  and  supreme  representative  of  the 
Jugoslavs  from  Austria  Hungary  in  their 
desire  to  liberate  and  unite  themselves  with 
their  brothers  from  Serbia  and  Montenegro. 
The  committee  consists  of  well  known  and 
popular  political  leaders,  members  of  parlia- 
ments, intellectual  workers  and  financial-com- 
mercial men  of  good  standing,  the  greatest 
part  of  whom  have  been  working  upon  that 
idea  for  decades.  The  Committee  numbers 
now  25  members,  of  which  15  Croatians,  7 
Serbians  and  3  Slovenians.  All  the  Jugoslav 
provinces  of  Austria-Hungary  are  represent- 
ed :  there  being  10  members  from  Dalmatia, 
3  from  Istria,  1  from  Goricka,  2  from  Trieste 
(Trst),  1  from  Rieka  (Fiome),  3  from  Croatia, 
1  from  Corinthia,  3  from  Bosnia-Herzegovina 
and  1  from  South  Hungary.  The  Committee, 
as  well  as  its  individual  members,  have  in  their 
possession  confidential  authorizations  and  full 
powers  from  the  leading  circles  of  all  the 
different  Serbians,  Croatian  and  Slovenian 
political  parties  in  the  Jugoslav  provinces  in 
Austria-Hungary.  It  is  also  in  accord  with  a 
certain  number  of  the  highest  representatives 


SOttHE&N  SLAV'S  APPEAL 


of  the  Catholic  Clergy  amongst  the  Croatians 
and  the  Slovenians. 

The  idea  of  the  Unification  of  the  South 
Slavs  has  its  traditions  as  early  as  the  16th 
century,  and  has  been  especially  clearly  de- 
fined in  the  first  half  of  the  19th  and  the  first 
decades  of  the  20th  centuries.  The  movement 
has  been  started  (in  17th  and  18th  centuries) 
just  in  the  provinces  adjacent  to  the  Adriatic 
coast  and  has  past  from  Dubrovnik  (Ragusa) 
and  Dalmatia  to  the  Croatian  and  Serbian 
Vojvodina  (Southern  Hungary),  thence  to 
Cetigne  and  Belgrade. 

The  dissention  between  the  Serbians  and 
the  Croatians  has  begun  just  in  the  second 
half  of  the  19th  century,  after  the  Congress 
of  Berlin  and  the  occupation  of  Bosnia- 
Herzegovina,  but  it  has  been  stimulated  and 
artifically  maintained  by  Austria  and 
Hungary.  That  dissention  disappeared  as 
early  as  1903. 

It  was  Croatia  and  Dalmatia  who,  at  the 
expiration  of  the  19th  century  and  in  the  most 
recent  times,  have  always  mostly  promoted  the 
idea  of  Serbo-Croat  unification.  The  Croatian 
sabors  have,  as  early  as  the  18th  century, 
desired  an  entirety  of  territory  and  the  unity 
of  the  people,  and  more  than  once  have  legis- 
lated the  unity  of  the  Croatians  and  the 
Serbians.  That  was  the  leading  idea  of  the 
great  Croatian  Catholic  Bishop  Strosmajer 
and  his  followers.  Even  nov  in  the  time  of 
war,  under  the  heaviest  pressure,  the  Croatian 
Sabor  in  Zagreb  (Agram)  accentuates  that 
idea,  although  the  Austro-Madyar  machinat- 
ions had  insisted  to  repel  the  Croatians  from 
it.  Besides  the  Serbian  Orthodox,  the  Croatian 
and  Slovenian  Catholic  Clergy  have  been  per- 
secuted, since  this  war,  for  their  national  feel- 
ings, and  the  Croatian  leading  press,  despite 
all  the  censorship,  has  found  the  form  to  ex- 
press her  sympathy  for  the  Allies,  so  that  the 
Government  suppressed  the  main  organ  of  the 
Sabor  majority  in  Croatia  on  account  of  ist 
non-Austrophile  editorials  about  the  war. 

Since  in  Austria  thousands  and  thousands 
of  Jugoslav  men  of  intellect  and  politicians 
have  been  imprisoned,  interned,  and  about 
900,000  forced  to  the  front,  the  only  competent 
voice  of  the  people  is  that  of  the  refugees  and 
emmigrants  of  whom  the  greatest  number 
are  living  in  the  United  States  of  America  or 
in  the  South  American  republics.  In  the 
United  States  and  in  Canada  there  are  living 


about  700,000  Jugoslavs,  of  which  there  are 
400,000  Croatians,  200,000  Slovenians  and 
100,000  Serbians.  In  the  South  American 
republics  there  are  100,000  Jugoslavs,  who  are 
almost  exclusively  Croatians  from  Dalmatia 
and  Istria.  At  the  very  beginning  of  this  war 
it  was  a  political  organization  "  Croatian 
Alliance"  (or  "Hrvatski  Savez"),  which  has 
successfully  prevented  all  the  Croatians  from 
joining  as  reservists  the  Austrian  armies.  On 
the  10th  of  March,  1915,  a  meeting  of  563 
delegates  (Serbs,  Croat's  and  Slovenes)  from 
the  entire  United  States  was  held  in  Chicago, 
111.,  and  they  have  proclaimed  the  national 
unity  of  the  Serbians,  the  Croatians  and  the 
Slovenians.  In  the  month  of  May,  1915, 
several  thousands  of  Jugoslavs  from  Austria- 
Hungary  have  made  a  similar  proclamation  at 
Nis,  Serbia.  In  the  Summer  of  1915  a  whole 
series  of  great  national  meetings  throughout 
the  United  States  have  accepted  the  same 
resolutions;  in  'September,  1915,  representa- 
tives of  150,000  well  organized  Jugoslavs  have 
joined  in  that  resolution  in  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
of  which  the  strongest  were  the  organizations 
of  the  Croatians  ("Hrvatska  Zajednica"  with 
its  35,000  members  and  the  "Hrvatski  Savez", 
(Creation  Alliance  of  America).  With  that 
programme  has  also  agreed  the  Slovenian  or- 
ganization "Slovenska  Liga"  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Slovenian  delegates  which  was  held  in 
Cleveland  in  1916,  as  well  as  the  numberless 
meetings  which  have  been  held  in  the  course 
of  the  year  1916,  by  the  delegates  of  the  Ju- 
goslav Committee,  namely,  M.  Marjanovic  and 
Dr.  N.  Zupanic. 

In  the  South  American  republics  the  un- 
animity of  the  Jugoslav  people  is  complete 
and  the  programme  of  the  unification  has 
been  accepted  in  every  sense;  just  as  much 
could  be  said  of  the  Jugoslavs  living  in  New 
Zealand  and  Canada. 

It  should  be  mentioned  also  that  New 
Zealand  and  Canada  have  sent  certain  num- 
bers of  volunteers  for  Great  Britain;  that  a 
considerable  number  of  volunteers  from  both 
Americas  have  gone  of  their  own  free  will  to 
join  the  Allies;  that  thousands  of  Austrians 
deserters  —  among  whom  a  great  number  of 
officers  —  are  fighting  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  the  Serbian  armies ;  that  there  have  been 
formed  in  Russia  already  two  divisions 
(50,000  men)  from  the  refugees  and  prisoners 
of  war  —  formerly  Austrian  subjects  —  and 


THE  SOTJfHEttN  SLAV'S  AffEAL 


solifct'rs,  who  volunteered  and  are  now  fight- 
ing in  Dobrudga.  It  ought  also  to  be  accentuated 
that  the  Croatians  from  the  South  American 
republics  have  given  to  the  Serbian  .Red  Cross 
Society  and  Serbian  orphans  a  sum  of  about 
$200,000,  and  are  giving  every  month  a  sum 
of  $20,000  for  the  needs  of  the  Jugoslav  Com- 
mittee, and  have  collected  already  $300,000 
for  the  national  reserve  fund.  The  Jugoslavs 
in  the  United  States  of  America  —  who  are 
practically  all  Serbians  and  Croatians,  most- 
ly poor  workmen,  from  Austria-Hungary,  — 
have  given  for  the  Serbian  Belief  about 
$300,000. 

Finally,  as  a  proof  that  neither  the 
religion  nor  the  clergy  are  opposing  the  un- 
ification, could  be  considered  the  resolution 
which  has  been  arrived  at  by  the  Serbian- 
Orthodox,  Uniat  and  the  Croatian-Catholic 
clergy  at  their  meetings  held  in  Chicago,  111., 
and  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  in  1916. 

Even  the  Moslems  from  Bosnia-Herzego- 
vina, who  are  still  at  liberty  in  Switzerland 
have  declared  themselves,  by  their  separate 
agreement,  for  the  Allies  and  rose  up  against 
Turkey. 

From  all  this  it  is  obvious  that  the  Jugo- 
slav idea  is  not  one  of  recent  creation,  that  it 
penetrates  in  the  traditional  idea  of  all  the 
Serbians,  the  Croatians  and  Slovenians,  that 
it  does  not  announce  an  aggressive  policy  of 
Serbia  but  a  policy  of  liberation  by  Serbia, 
who  is  the  bearer  of  the  idea  for  which  have 
hitherto  worked  and  immolated  themselves 
the  best  Serbians,  Croatians  and  Slovenians 
in  Austria-Hungary.  Napoleon  the  Great 
himself  had  begun  to  realize  that  idea  by  in- 
corporating the  "Illyrian  Kingdom"  and  had 


thus  left  behind  a  most  beautiful  souvenir  in 
the  Western  Jugoslav  provinces.  That  idea  is 
defended  to-day  by  the  Croatian  Sab  or  and 
all  the  political  leaders  of  the  Jugoslav  people 
in  Austria-Hungary.  For  it,  to-day,  are  now 
fighting  with  Serbs  and  Russians  tens  of 
thousands  Jugoslav  refugees  and  it  is  accept- 
ed and  supported  by  almost  the  entire  number 
of  the  Jugoslav  emmigrants. 

That  idea  has  no  spontaneous  enemies 
among  the  Jugoslav  people,  for  it  has  been 
proved  that  all  oppositions  are  being  pro- 
voked, even  in  America,  by  Austria  and  her 
paid  agents  who  can,  only  for  a  time,  mislead 
the  most  neglected  masses ;  for  absolutely  all, 
who  are  consciencious  and  more  educated, 
enlightened  that  idea. 

The  Jugoslav  propaganda  in  America 
has  for  its  object  to  secure  from  the  Jugoslav 
emmigrants  the  permissible  and  legitimate 
help  for  the  great  and  just  national  struggle 
and  to  stimulate  the  interest  of  the  American 
public  opinion  in  that  struggle,  so  that  even 
the  official  America,  at  the  time  of  the  peace 
negotiation,  should  endeavor,  through  its 
representatives,  that  the  justified  whishes  of 
the  Jugoslavs  should  be  realized  in  the  spirit 
of  the  American  democracy  and  for  the  sake 
of  justice,  liberty,  democracy  and  lasting 
peace  in  Europe  and  the  world. 

On  the  29th  of  November  there  will  be 
held  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  the  Second  Universal 
Jugoslav  Meeting  of  the  delegates  from  all  the 
colonies  and  organizations  in  North  and  South 
America  and  in  Cleveland  has  been  established 
the  Central  Office  of  the  Jugoslav  movement 
which  is  publishing  this  statement. 

The  Jugoslav  Committee. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

ENGLISH  BOOKS, 


1.  The  Southern  Slav  Programme  (Lon- 
don, Jugoslav  Committee). 

2.  The  Southern  Slav ;  Land  and  People. 
(London,  Jugoslav  Committee). 

3.  A  Sketch  of  Southern  Slav  History. 
(London,   Jugoslav   Committee). 

4.  Southern  Slav  Culture.  (London,  Ju- 
goslav Committee). 

5.  Idea  of  Southern  'Slav  Unity.   (Lon- 
don, Jugoslav  Committee). 

6.  The  Slovenians.      (London,  Jugoslav 
Committee).   Map   of   Southern   Slav 
Territory,  by  Dr.  N.  Zupanic.   (Pub- 
lished on  behalf  of  the  Jugoslav  Com- 
mittee). 

7.  The    War    in    Eastern    Europe,    de- 

scribed by  John  Reed,  pictured  by 
R.  Robinson,  London,  1916. 

8.  Jugoslav    Nationalism.       Three     lec- 
tures   by   Dr.    B.    Vosnjak,    with    an 
address    by    M.    E.    Sadler,    London, 
1916. 

9.  The  Truth  about  Bulgaria,  by  Alfred 
Steed,   reprinted   from  the  "English 
Review".  London,  1916. 

10.  The    Experiences   of   a   Unit   in    the 
Great  Retreat   (Serbia  1915).    H.    J. 
W.     A  Diary  of  a  Nursing  Sister  in 
Serbia.     London  1916. 

11.  British   Women   in   Serbia    and    the 
War,  by  Dr.  M.  Curcin,  London,  1916. 

12.  Kossovo  Day,  Report  and    two    lec- 
tures,  (by  prof.     T.     Georgevic  and 

prof.    V.  Yovanovic).    London,    1916 

13.  With   Serbia   into   exile,    by   Fortier 
Jones,  New  York,  The  Century  Co., 
1916. 

14.  The  Aspiration  of  Bulgaria.    By  Bal- 
canicus.     London.       Simpkin,     Mar- 
shalll,  Hamilton,  Kent  S.  C. 

15.  The  Slav  Nations,  by  Srgjan  Tucic, 
George    H.    Doron    Company,    New 
York. 

16.  Serbia,  Her  People,  History  and  Aspi- 
rations.    By  W.   M.  Petrovich,  New 
York.  (Frederick  A.  Storer  Comp.) 

17.  Serbia  in  Light  and  Darkness.  By  Rev. 
Father    Nicholai     Velimirovie,    with 
preface   by  the  Archbishop   of  Can- 
terbury. London.    New  York.  (Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.) 


18.  The  Soul  of  Serbia,  by  Nikolai  Veil- 
mirovic.  London,  1916. 

19.  The  Spirit  of  the  Serbia,  By  R.  W. 
Seton    Watson,    London.    (Nisbet    & 
Co.) 

20.  The  Religious  Spirit  of  the  Slav,  by 
Nikolai   Velimirovic,   London.    (Mac- 
millan  and  Co.) 

21.  Heroic    Serbia,    By    Victor    Berard 
(Kossovo  Committee). 

22.  The  Women  of  Serbia.  By  Fanny  S. 
Copeland  (Kossovo  Committe*). 

23.  Serbian  Ballads.     Translated  by    R. 
W.     Seton- Watson.     (Kossovo     Com- 
mittee). 

24.  ,  The  Balkans,  Italy,  and  the  Adriatic. 

By  R.  W.  Seton- Watson.  (Nisbet  and 
Co.,  Ltd.). 

25.  German,  Slav,  and  Magyar.  By  R.  W. 
Seton- Watson.    (Williams    and    Nor- 
gate). 

26.  Serbia   Yesterday,   To-day,    and   To- 
morrow.   By    R.    W.    Seton-Watson. 
(Kossovo  Committee). 

27.  Without    Home    or    Country.    By    a 
Serbian  Poet.    (Kossovo  Committee). 

28.  Serbia  and  Kossovo.  By  Dr.  S.  Geor- 
gevitch. 

29.  Austro-Hungarians  Atrocities.  By  R. 
A.  Reiss.  (Simpsin,  Marshall  and  Co. 
Ltd.). 

30.  The    German    Peril    and    the    Grand 
Alliance.  By  G.  de  Veselitsky  (Fisher 
Unwin). 

31.  Jugoslav  Culture,   By  Milan  Marja- 
novic.  London.  (Jugoslav  Committee, 
1915). 

32.  The  Strategical  Significance  of  Ser- 
bia. By  Dr.  Niko  Zupanic.  (From  the 
"Nineteenth       Century".       London 
1916). 

33.  The  Persecutions  of  Southern  Slavs 
in  Austria-Hungary.   Preface  by  W. 
Joynson  Hicks.     (London .  Nisbet   & 
Co.). 

34.  The   'Serbian    Macedonia.     By    Pavle 
Popovic.   London,   from   "The    Near 
East." 

35.  Hero   Tales   &   Legends   of  the   Ser- 
bians. By  W.  Petrovitch.  32  illustra- 
tions. London.  (George  Harrap  Co.) 


PART  I. 


THE  SOUTHERN  SLAVS. 


The  Jugoslav  form  part  of  the  great  Slav 
race,  which  is  itself  a  branch  of  the  Indo- 
Aryan  race.  They  are  divided  into  three  main 
groups,  the  Western,  Eastern  and  Southern 
Slavs.  The  Western  Slavs  include  the  Poles, 
Czechs,  Slovaks,  and  the  Slavs  in  Germany 
(i.  e.  the  Serbs  of  Upper  and  Lower  Lusatia 
and  the  Cassoubs  and  Slovinci  in  West  Prussia 
and  Pomerania).  The  Eastern  Slavs  are  the 
Russians,  whose  Southern  branch  goes  by  the 
name  of  Ruthenes  in  Galicia,  Bukovina,  and 
Hungary.  The  Southern  'Slavs  or  Jugoslavs 
(Jug — South  in  the  Slav  tongues)  include  the 
Bulgars,  Serbo-Croats,  and  Slovenes. 

Setting  aside  the  Bulgars,  who,  by  their 
characteristics  and  political  aims,  form  an  en- 
tily  apart,  the  Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes  are 
one  single  nation  known  by  three  different 
names.  In  this  and  several  other  pamphlets 
we  propose  to  deal  only  with  these  people, 
whom  we  call  "Jugoslavs." 

The  Jugoslavs  (i.  e.  the  Serbs,  Croats,  and 
Slovenes)  form  the  compact  bulk  of  the  present 
population  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  Part  of 
the  land  inhabited  by  them  constitutes  the  in- 
dependent Jugoslav  kingdoms  of  Serbia  and 
Montenegro,  and  the  large  remaining  portio- 
belongs  to  Austria-Hungary. 

The  national  territory  of  the  Serbs,  Croats, 
and  Slovenes  therefore  comprises: 

1.  The  kingdom  of  Serbia  and  Montene- 
gro. 

2.  Bosnia-Hercegovina. 

3.  Dalmatia  and  the  Dalmatian  archipela- 
go. 

4.  Croatia  and  Slavonia,  including  Rieka 
(Fiume)  and  the  Medjumurje. 

5.  The  country  of  the  Drave  in  Southern 
Hungary  (Baranja),  the  Backa,  and  the  Banat. 

6.  Istria,  the  Quarnero  Isles,  and  Trieste. 

7.  The  Slovene  lands,  i.   e.  Carniola  and 
Gorica;  'Southern  Carinthia,  Southern  Styria, 
and  the  adjoining  districts  in  South-western 
Hungary. 

The  Jugoslavs  are  a  homogeneous  nation, 
both  as  regards  their  language  and  their  ethno- 
graphical characteristics. 

The  Serbs  and  Croats  form  an  absolute 


linguistic  unit.  Their  literary  language  is 
identical ;  their  spoken  language  varies  locally 
according  to  the  dialect,  which  is  differentiat- 
ed according  to  pronunciation  of  the  word  sto 
(what;  Lat.  quid);  in  one  part  of  the  country 
it  is  pronunced  ca,  in  another  kaj,  in  the  third 
sto.  The  first  or  ca  dialect  is  spoken  in  the 
north  of  Dalmatia,  in  the  Isles,  on  the  Croatian 
coast,  and  in  Istria.  The  second  or  kaj  dialect 
predominates  in  North-western  Croatia  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  Karlovac  (Karlstadt)  to 
the  river  Mur,  in  the  counties  of  Zagreb,  (the 
present  Belovar),  and  above  all  in  the  Med- 
jumurje. The  third  or  sto  dialect  is  the  one 
most  widely  spoken ;  it  is  the  speech  of  Serbia, 
Montenegro,  Bosnia-Hercegovina,  Dalmatia, 
South-Western  Croatia,  Slavonia,  and  Southern 
Hungary.  It  is  also  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
three  dialects,  the  most  melodious,  and  the 
richest  in  vowel  sounds;  it  has  taken  prece- 
dence of  the  other  two,  and  reigns  to-day  as 
the  accepted  literary  tongue.  The  Slovene 
speech  is  merely  a  variety  of  the  kaj  dialect; 
it  is  still  the  local  literary  tongue  of  the  Slo- 
venes, but  it  has  been  greatly  approximated  in 
its  vocabulary,  syntax,  and  morphology  to  the 
sto  dialect,  which  is  the  standard  literary  lan- 
guage of  the  Serbo-Croats. 

As  regards  ethnographical  characteristics, 
Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes  form  but  one  single 
nation.  Popular  tradition  has  kept  the  memory 
of  the  national  hero,  Marko  Kraljevic,  alive 
among  all  Jugoslavs.  His  exploits  are  sung 
everywhere,  and  without  exception,  in  all  Ju- 
goslav provinces.  The  fact  that  the  Serbs, 
Croats,  and  Slovenes  have  a  national  hero  in 
common  is  in  itself  a  great  proof  of  the  racial 
unity  of  the  Jugoslavs. 

In  religious  maters,  our  nation  is  divided 
between  the  Orthodox  Church,  which  predom- 
inates in  Serbia,  Montenegro,  Bosnia-Hercego- 
vina, and  parts  of  Dalmatia  and  Croatia-'Sla- 
vonia,  the  Catholic  Church  (in  Croatia,  Slavo- 
nia, Dalmatia,  Bosnia-Hercegovina,  Carniola, 
Carinthia,  Styria,  and  Istria),  and  the  Mahom- 
medan  faith  in  Bosnia-Hercegovina.  There 
are,  moreover,  Nazarenes  in  South  Hungary, 
and  a  sprinkling  of  Jews  scattered  everywhere. 


10  THE    SOUTHERN 

Among  a  large  part  of  the  Catholic,  divine 
service  is  celebrated  in  the  Old-Slav  tongue  in 
the  same  way  as  in  all  Orthodox  Churches. 

In  the  schools  and  in  the  literature  the 
Jugoslavs  employ  two  forms  of  script — the  Cy- 
rillic and  the  Latin.  Glagoliti"  character? 
are  now  no  longer  used,  except  in  the  Catholic 
churches  of  the  littoral. 

THE     PEOPLE     OF     THE 
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN  MONARCHY. 

The  Habsburg  Monarchy  is  a  dual  state 
formation,  founded  on  the  compromise  of  1867, 
by  virtue  of  which  the  Germans  and  Hun- 
garians have  divided  all  the  political  power 
between  themselves  and  thus  assured  their  do- 
mination over  other  nationalities. 

The  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy,  (Bos- 
nia and  Herzegovina  included),  has  in  round 
numbers  51,000.000  inhabitants.  According  to 
the  official  census  of  1910,  there  are  only 
12,010,600  (or  23.55%)  Germans  and  10,068,000 
(or  19.75%)  Magyars. 

In  the  Austrian  half  of  the  monarchy,  the 
9,950,000  Germans  (35.6%)  rule  the  18,000,000 
non-Germans  (64.4%).  Out  of  these  18,000,000 
non  -  German  inhabitants,  16,958,000  (or 
60.65%)  are  Slavs.  (6,436,000  or  23%  are 
Czechs;  4,967,000  or  17.77%  are  Poles; 
3,519,000  or  12%  are  Russians  and  2,036,000  or 
7.3%  are  Jugoslavs).  The  ballance  are  Ita- 
lians (768,000  or  2.75%)  and  Rumanians 
(275,000  or  1%). 

In  the  Hungarian  half  of  the  monarchy, 
which  de  facto  controls  Bosnia  and  Herzego- 
vina, the  10,050,000  Magyars  (48%),  rule  the 
12,700,000  or  52%  non-Magyars.  Of  these  non- 
Magyars  7,534,000  are  Slavs.  (Slovaks  2,040,- 
000).  The  ballance  in  this  half  of  the  monar- 
chy are  Rumaninas  (2,950,000)  and  Germans 
(1,903.000). 

Summarizing  the  official  data,  we  can 
state  in  round  numbers  that  in  Austria-Hun- 
gary live  24,500,000  or  48%  Slavs;  22,000,000 
or  43%  Germans  and  Hungarians  and  4,023,- 
000  are  Latins,  (3,225,000  Rumanians  and 
798,000  Italians). 

Of  the  Slavs  in  the  monarchy,  the  largest 
group  is  Czecho-Slovaks  (8,478,000)  Jugo- 
slavs (7,010,270),  Poles  (5,000,000)  and  Ruthe- 
nes  (3,999,000), 


SLAV'S    APPEAL 

THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV  TERRITORY  AND 
PEOPLE. 

There  are  more  than  13,000,000  Jugoslav 
(Serbs.  Croats  and  Slovenians). 

Before  the  war,  there  were  in  round  num- 
bers 5,000,000  Jugoslavs  living  in  the  independ- 
ent Jugoslav  kingdoms  of  Serbia  and  Monte- 
negro. 

Under  Austro-Hungarian  rule,  there  were 
about  7,165.000  Jugoslav  in  both  Americas 
800,000  (of  which  700,000  in  the  United 
States). 

There  are  40,000  Jugoslav  living  in  Italy, 
near  Udine  and  in  southern  Italy,  also  the 
ballance  in  Greece,  near  Florine,  Vodene  and 
near  Salonica,  and  in  Northern  Albania.  — 

The  National  Territory  of  the  Jugoslav 
people  comprises  all  those  lands  in  South- 
Eastern  Europe  in  which  they  have  settled 
more  than  1000  years  ago  and  which  land  they 
inhabit  even  today  in  large  majority  and  in 
compact  numbers. 

This  territory  includes  the  following 
lands : 

The  kingdoms  of: 

Serbia,     with  the  area  of  SI, 000  square  miles  and   4.500,000  Jugoslavs 

Montenegro.  _  5,000        500,000 

TOTAL  36,000        5,000,000 

Under  the  Austrian  or  German  rule: 

Dalmatia,  with  the  area  of  4,940  square  miles  and  610,000  Jugoslavs 

Istria'  1,930  225.000 

Triest.  10  70f(m 

Gorizia-Gradisca,     "  1,000  •  ^5/000 

Carniola,  3,850  490,000 

Southern  Carinthia,  2,000                   "         "  110,000 

Southern  Styria,        "  3,000 

Total  under  Austrian,         16,730 
or  German,  rule. 


"  S.070.000 


Under  the  Hungarian  (or  Magyar)  rule : 

Croatia  and  Slavonic,  area  of  16,770  sq.  m.  and    9,300,000  Jugoslavs 

Rijeka,  (.Fiume).  8 35,000 

Medjumurje,  '      "       500    "    " 

Baranja,  Backa  and  Banat  "     6  500 

(in  South  Hungary),  _J 

Total  under  Magyar  rule,  SS.778 S.225,000 

Bosnia-Hertzegovina,  area  of    19,690    ' 1,870,000 

Under  combined  Austro-Hungarian  rule: 
Summary : 

Under  the  Austrian  or 

German  rule,  area  of  16,730 2,070,000 

Under  the  Hungarian 

or  Magyar  rule,  area  of  23,778 S,S25,000 

Combined  German  and 

Magyar  rule,  area  of  19,690 1,870000 

Total  under  German 

and  Magyar  rule,  area  of  60,198 7,165,000 

Total  Kingdoms  of  Serbia 

and  Montenegro,  area  of  36,000 5,000,000 

GRAND  TOTAL,  -  -  96.198 lt.16S.000 

(The  official  Austro-Hungarian  statistics 
of  1910  claim  that  there  are  7,010,270  Jugo- 
slavs in  Austria  Hungary  including  Bosnia- 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S    APPEAL 


11 


Herzegovina.  The  difference  of  154,730  comes 
from  mixed  communities.  We  are  sure  that 
our  numbers  are  correct  in  accordence  with  a 
private  census  effected  by  our  people.  The 
Austro-Hungarian  census  agents,  in  mixed 
communities  invariably  consider  a  person  as 
Hungarian  or  German,  as  the  case  may  be,  if 
he  is  able  to  speak  the  Hungarian  or  German 
language.  The  same  rule  applies  to  the  Italian 
censors  throughout  Istria  and  Trieste.  Thus 
a  large  number  of  our  people  are  classed  under 
a  false  designation.) 
THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  THE  SERBIANS. 

At  the  moment  when  the  world's  greatest 
cataclysm  is  taking  the  third — and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  the  last — phase,  it  may  not  be  wholly 
without  interest  for  George  Washington's 
champions  of  liberty  to  hear  the  sighs  of  a 
most  democratic  people  of  Europe  that  has 
been  crucified  three  times  in  its  history  for  the 
high  principle  of  freedom  ond  unity. 

Yet,  it  is  a  source  of  an  inexhaustible  pride 
and  gratitude  for  the  Serbians  to  know  that, 
after  five  centuries  of  Western  Europe 's  ignor- 
ance of  Serbia's  immolation  on  the  altar  of 
Christianity,  when  the  prosperous  and  mighty 
Serbian  mediaeval  state  crushed — not  without 
crushing  itself — the  forces  of  Amurath  and  Ba- 
jazett  in  the  memorable  battles  of  Kossovo,  on 
June  15  (0.  S.)  1389,  the  proud  sons  of  Albion 
having  finally  known  the  incomparable  virtues 
of  their  little  ally  of  the  Balkans,  have  spon- 
taneously and  most  manifestedly  shown  their 
admiration  and  love  of  their  heroic  brothers  in 
arms,  by  ordering  and  performing  on  June  28, 
1916,  throughout  their  mighty  kingdom  a  cele- 
bration of  the  Kossovo  Day. 

And  all  that  in  honor  of  those  Serbians 
who  were  so  badly  handicapped  in  the  popular 
esteem  of  Great  Britain  and  America  on 
account  of  their  national  revolution  of  1903 
and  other  "sinister"  events  in  their  recent 
history !  Tout  saviour  c'est  tout  pardonner.  And 
when  the  world  comes  to  know  all  about  Serbia 
there  will  be  no  shadow  of  doubt  that  her 
people  is  one  of  the  least  guilty  in  human  histo- 
ry, and  that  her  revolutions  have  not  been 
nearly  so  bloody  as  those  of  most  advanced 
and  cultured  nations. 

THE    ONCE    PROSPEROUS    PROVINCES. 

After  the  battle  of  Kosovo  the  Serbian 
State  persisted  still,  though  only  as  a  vassal 
province  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  But  the 
poetic  'Serbian  soul  was  so  deeply  impressed 
by  that  memorable  catastrophe  that  the  na- 


tional bards  gave  expression,  in  a  cycle  of  en- 
chanting ballads  of  Homeric  beauty,  to  the 
greatest  and  saddest  event  in  history,  in  which 
the  Serbian  people  was  deprived  of  liberty  and 
unity.  And,  indeed,  at  the  close  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  the  Serbian  suzerain  state  suc- 
cumbed completely  under  the  Sublime  Porte 
when  the  prosperous  provinces  of  the  once 
mighty  Serbian  Empire  were  wasted  by  the 
agents  from  Stamboul,  whose  systematic  exter- 
mination of  Serbian  Velika  and  Mala  Vlastela 
(i.  e.  Great  and  Small  Nobility),  was  nearing 
a  close.  The  small  remainder  of  the  Serbian 
aristocracy  found  refuge  in  the  Orthodox 
courts  of  Vallahia  and  Moldavia,  some  of 
whom  fled  to  Dubrovnik  (Ragusa),  Rome,  and 
even  to  Scotland  and  Ireland.  As  for  the 
people,  they  split  into  three  distinct  groups. 
Those  who  dwelt  in  the  lowlands  alongside  the 
Danube  and  in  the  valleys  of  Morava  and  Var- 
dar,  remained  in  their  homes  and  bent  under 
the  Turkish  yoke ;  considerable  numbers,  and 
especially  the  inhabitants  of  the  regions  in  Ma- 
cedonia and  what  was  known  till  recently 
under  the  name  of  "Old  Serbia",  settled,  in 
the  course  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  in  Hungary  and  colonized  the  Banat 
Batchka  (or  Backa),  and  the  provinces  of 
Sirmia  (or  Srem)  and  part  of  Croatia.  Lastly, 
a  third  group,  unwilling  to  yield  to  any  autho- 
rity and  composed  chiefly  of  the  small  Vlaste- 
la, withdrew  into  the  mountains,  inaccessible 
to  the  Turkish  horsemen,  and  became  prac- 
tically outlaws ;  entrenched  in  their  defiles, 
expert  in  guerilla  warfare,  soon  inured  to  per- 
secution and  hardship,  and  there  they  served 
as  the  only  check  on  the  cruel  manners  that 
the  Turks  adopted  in  exercising  wholesale 
Ottomanization.  These  indomitable  fighters 
with  their  nests  in  the  Black  Rocks  of  Monte- 
negro, Dalmatia,  and  Sumadia  (or  Serbia  prop- 
er), are  known  to  history  as  the  Hajduks  and 
Uskoks,  who  preserved  and  upheld  through 
centuries  of  oppression  the  traditions  of  hero- 
ism of  their  ancestors  and  the  spirit  of  their 
race.  So  tenaciously  did  they  maintain  their 
nationality,  religion,  speech,  and  most  especial- 
ly their  exuberant  balladry,  that  at  the  dawn 
of  the  nineteenth  century  they  still  formed  a 
nucleus  round  which  Serbia  was  once  more  to 
grow  into  an  independent  political  body. 
TURKISH  CONTROL. 

The  subjugation  of  Serbia  proper  was 
speedily  followed  by  that  of  Bosnia  (1463)  and 
of  Herzegovina  (1482). 

The  Serbian  population     which  had  ac- 


12 


THE   SOUTHERN    SLAV'S   APPEAL 


cepted  Ottoman  rule  lived  thenceforth  in  a 
most  unhappy  condition.  They  soon  ceased  to 
be  proprietors  of  their  own  land,  which  was 
divided  among  Turkish  spahis.  To  these  land- 
lords those  of  the  people  who  did  not  embrace 
Islam  had  to  render  many  personal  services 
(kuluk),  and  to  give  a  tithe,  or  a  seventh  part 
of  their  produce.  They  paid  a  tax  to  the  Sul- 
tan, another  to  the  governing  pasha,  and  "bak- 
sheesh" to  the  tax  collector,  whom  they  were 
also  obliged  to  entertain.  During  the  Turkish 
invasion  of  Hungary  the  passage  of  countless 
armies  again  and  again  reduced  a  maturally 
fertile  country  to  an  utter  waste.  There  was 
no  security  of  life,  honor  or  property,  and 
there  was  the  crowning  horror  of  the  gift  of 
the  Christian  children,  every  seventh  or  every 
fifth  year,  to  be  trained  as  janissaries. 

Thus  passed  the  eighteenth  century,  with 
promise  of  better  things  ever  alternating  with 
bitter  disappointments.  And  the  Serbian  peo- 
ple peacefully  endured  the  oppression  in  the 
hope  that,  sooner  or  later,  the  bright  star  of 
their  national  unification  would  appear  on  the 
horizon. 

THE    NEW    SERBIA. 

There  lived  at  this  time  in  the  village  of 
Topola  in  Sumadia  a  man  named  George  Pe- 
trovitch.  He  had  some  experience  of  warfare, 
having  served  under  Austria  as  a  volunteer  in 
1788,  and  was  known  as  one  of  the  most  enter- 
prising men  in  the  country.  He  had  narrowly 
escaped  death  at  the  hands  of  the  Janissaries 
by  instant  fight  into  the  forest.  Tall,  stalwart, 
determined,  highly  intelligent,  though  illiter- 
ate, he  was  also  violent,  morose  and  taciturn, 
and  known  to  the  Turks  on  this  account  as 
Kara  George  (i.  e.  Black  George)  ;  it  is  under 
this  name  that  he  has  passed  down  to  posteri- 
ty. No  sooner  had  he  reached  a  place  of  safe- 
ty than  many  bands  of  fugitives  gathered 
round  him.  One  after  the  other  the  villages 
and  cities  in  Central  Serbia  feel  an  easy  prey 
to  the  brave  troops  of  Karageorge,  and  a  free 
Serbia,  however  small,  was  soon  reestablished, 
only,  alas,  to  be  again  subjugated  in  1813  by  the 
irresistible  forces  of  the  three  pashas  advanc- 
ing in  three  different  directions.  The  efforts 
which  were  renewed  by  another  peasant  gene- 
ral, Milosh  Obrenovic,  were  crowned  with 
better  success,  for  he  made  in  1815  a  fresh  in- 
surrection that  terminated  in  a  complete  liber- 
ation of  Northern  and  Central  Serbia.  During 
the  War  of  Greek  Independence  Milosh  wrung 
from  the  Turks  a  number  of  valuable  conces- 


sions, the  treaties  of  Akkerman  (1826)  and 
Adrianople  (1829)  definitely  regularized  the 
position  of  Serbia.  By  wholesale  bribery 
Milosh  obtained  in  Constantinoule,  in  1830  a 
formal  recognition  as  hereditary  prince  of 
Serbia.  The  sudden  return  of  Karageorge 
from  Russia,  where  he  went  to  seek  help  and 
munitions,  his  mysterious  death  upon  his  cross- 
ing of  Serbia's  frontier  and  the  bitter  feud 
that  ensued  between  the  two  dynasties,  show- 
ed clearly  that  the  two  imperial  governments 
in  Petrograd  and  Vienna  struggled,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Serbia,  for  hegemony  in  that  unfortu- 
nate country.  Milosh  was  banished,  his  son 
Michael  assasinated  in  Koshutnyak,  near  Bel- 
grade, Karageorge 's  son  Alexander  abdicated, 
King  Milan  died  in  Vienna  after  having  been 
banished  by  his  own  son  Alexander  and  his 
mistress  Draga;  Alexander  himself  paid  dear- 
ly for  his  haughty  manner  and  the  unfort- 
unate soil-tillers  of  Serbia  looked  at  their  new- 
ly chosen  King  Peter  Karageorgevitch,  as  they 
did  at  his  grandfather  George  Petrovitch,  for 
the  long-awaited  peace  and  order.  And  in- 
deed, the  wise  citizen  of  Switzerland  and  the 
graduate  of  Saint-Cyr,  immediately  upon  his 
arrival  into  power,  gave  his  people  a  most  de- 
mocratic constitution  and  his  government  a 
carte-blanche.  The  three  years  that  followed 
his  accession  were  a  period  of  rest  and  re- 
cuperation under  the  quiet  and  wise  admini- 
stration of  Mr.  Nikola  Pasic,  agriculture, 
industry  and  trade  were  encouraged  and  in- 
creased to  an  unprecedented  extend. 

AUSTRIA   AND   SERBIA. 

With  the  growth  of  trade,  however,  Ser- 
bia's position  of  complete  economic  depend- 
ence on  the  openly  hostile  or  extortionate 
markets  of  Austria-Hungary  became  more  and 
impossible,  and  to  obtain  relief  from  the 
thraldom  she  concluded,  despite  the  vigorous 
and  healthy  opposition  of  a  group  of  Serbian 
industrials  a  customs  treaty  with  treacherous 
Bulgaria.  Austria  replied  by  a  war  of  tariffs, 
the  socalled  "Pig  War",  swine  remaining  to 
that  day  the  most  important  item  of  Serbia's 
export  trade.  But  as  Serbia  found  new  outlets 
in  Egypt,  Italy  and  France  for  her  exports 
and  thus  showed  the  Dual  Monarchy  most 
manifestly  that  she  could  be  emancipated  from 
the  oppression  of  her  powerful  neighbor,  Aus- 
tria, immediately  upon  the  Young  Turk  re- 
volution, threw  a  bomb-shell  among  the  Euro- 
pean powers  by  annexing  the  two  provinces 
of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  wishing  in  this 


manner  to  become  herself  a  Balkan  state  in 
order  better  to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of 
the  Peninsula.  Serbia,  of  course,  was  in  no 
mood  to  acquiesce  to  this  deliberate  tearing  up 
of  the  scrap  of  paper  known  as  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin.  However,  Russia,  to  whom  the  chal- 
lenge was  openly  thrown,  while  endeavoring, 
in  her  momentary  impotence,  to  obtain  some 
compensation  for  Serbia,  counseled  modera- 
tion. Thus  the  crisis  was  averted  for  the  mo- 
ment, but  from  that  day  it  became  obvious 
that  neither  Russia  nor  Serbia,  nor  even  the 
Entente  Powers,  could  forgive  and  forget,  and 
that  the  hour  of  reckoning  was  merely  post- 
poned. 

Ever  since,  Austria  has  endeavored  to  find 
some  ca&us  belli  in  order  to  have  a  free  hand 
in  chastising  hard-striving  Serbia.  The  much- 
complicated  Macedonian  question  was  settled 
by  the  Balkan  League  of  1912,  whereby  the 
Turks,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  world,  were 
all  but  driven  out  of  Europe.  The  treacherous 
Bulgars,  upon  the  wink  of  ever-envious  Aus- 
tria, in  open  defiance  of  her  secret  treaty  with 
Serbia  by  virtue  of  which  the  dispute  concern- 
ing territory  in  Macedonia  should  have  been 
submitted  for  a  final  decision  to  Russia,  at- 
tacked her  ally  in  the  hope  of  renching  out 
of  her  and  Greece  the  whole  of  Macedonia, 
only,  however,  to  receive  severe  punishment 
by  the  armies  of  King  Peter  in  the  memorable 
battle  of  Bregalnica. 

The  defeat  of  the  sultan's  forces  in  all 
parts  of  European  Turkey  had  been  a  tre- 
mendous blow  to  Austria-Hungary,  and  es- 
pecially to  Germany.  The  defeat  of  Austria's 
protegee,  Bulgaria,  by  Serbia,  the  Greek  occu- 
pation of  Salonica  and  especially  the  rise  in 
power  and  prestige  of  Serbia — the  friend  of 
Russsia  and  the  apostle  of  Jugo-slav  (or  South 
Slav),  emancipation — constituted  for  the  Cen- 
tral Powers  a  still  greater  catastrophe.  Only 
prompt  action  could  retrieve  such  a  miscarry- 
ing of  the  Austro-German  plans,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  to  hear  that  already  in  1913,  Aus- 
tria was  bent  on  declaring  war  on  Serbia  and 
endeavored  to  secure  the  support  of  Italy.  As 
this  support  was  not  forthcoming,  action  was 
deferred  for  the  moment,  and  a  huge  army 
bill  was  introduced  in  Germany  to  regain  the 
balance  of  power  and  make  ready  for  any 
eventuality. 

Serbia,  after  having  settled  the  distribu- 
tion of  conquered  territory  between  her  allies 
in  a  broad  and  generous  spirit,  wherein  the 
abandoned  even  the  dearly  paid  coast  of  Al- 


JTHB  SOtTTHERN  SLAV'S  APPEAL  13 

bania  for  the  sake  of  peace  with  threatening 
Austria,  gladly  hung  up  her  sword  and  pre- 
pared for  a  period  of  peace  and  recuperation, 
of  social  and  industrial  advancement. 


THE    MURDER    OF    FERDINAND. 

Such  was  the  position  when,  on  June  28th, 
1914,  the  Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand,  heir  to 
the  Hapsburg  throne,  and  his  consort  were  in 
a  most  mysterious  manner  murdered  in  the 
streets  of  Sarajevo,  the  capital  of  Bosnia.  Who 
arranged  that  tragedy?  Was  it  known  pre- 
viously in  Vienna  and  Budapest,  or  in  Bel- 
grade, or  also  in  all  the  three  capitals?  This 
will  remain  for  some  time  a  mystery.  But  let 
us  be  objective  and  consider  only  the  facts. 

Sir  Valentine  Chirol,  in  his  "Serbia  and 
the  Serbs"  (Oxford,  1914),  wrote  about  it: 
"The  absence  of  the  most  elementary  precau- 
tions for  his  (the  archduke's)  safety  during 
the  visit  to  Sarajevo,  though  according  to  the 
Austrians  themselves  the  whole  of  Bosnia  was 
honeycombed  with  sedition,  is  an  awkward 
fact  which  has  not  hitherto  been  explained." 

On  the  morrow  of  the  crime  the  press  of 
Vienna  and  Budapest  started  a  violent  cam- 
paign against  Serbia,  openly  putting  upon  the 
Serbian  Government  the  responsibility  for  the 
assassination.  It  availed  nothing  to  point  out 
that  a  country  still  bleeding  from  the  wounds 
of  two  desperate  wars,  whose  most  urgent  need 
was  a  period  of  quiet  and  of  internal  consoli- 
dation, could  not  have  chosen  itself  in  new  un- 
favorable a  moment  to  involve  itself  in  new 
difficulties  with  a  powerful  neighbor;  it  pro- 
duced no  evidence  to  prove  that  the  assassins 
were  Serbian  subjects.  In  the  words  of  Dr.  R. 
W.  Seton- Watson  ("The  War  and  Democra- 
cy," 1915) :  "Bosnia,  Dalmatia  and  Croatia  are 
a  seething  pot  which  needs  no  stirring  from 
the  outside."  The  Austro-Hungarian  press  set 
itself  deliberately  to  spread  the  idea  that  the 
outrage  had  been  organized  in  and  by  Serbia, 
and  certain  classes  of  people  were,  unfortunate- 
ly, too  ready  to  admit  anything  sensational  and 
too  deaf  to  the  voice  of  Belgrade  to  hear  any- 
thing else.  Although  the  Bosnian  Serbs  were 
always  referred  to  in  Austria  by  such  names 
as  "die  Bosniaken"  or  "die  Orthodoxen  aus 
Bosnien"  (i.  e.,  "the  Bosnians'  or  "the  Ortho- 
doxes  of  Bosnia"),  the  perpetrators,  who  are 
unmistakably  Austrian  subjects,  were  referred 
to  invariably  as  "Serben"  (i.  e.,  Serbians), 
and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  the  impression 
that  they  were  Serbs  from  'Serbia. 


U  THE 

AUSTRIA   FOR   WAR 

It  was  at  6  P.  M.  on  July  23rd  that  the 
Austro-Hungarian  minister  in  Belgrade  handed 
to  the  minister  for  foreign  affairs  the  note 
embodying  the  demands  of  Austria  and  insist- 
ing on  a  reply  within  forty-eight  hours. 

The  Serbian  Goverment  was  charged  with 
fomenting  a  revolutionary  propaganda,  having 
for  its  object  the  detachment  of  part  of  the 
territory  of  Austria-Hungary  from  the  monar- 
chy. It  was  averred,  though  no  proof  was  given 
and  no  dossier  communicated,  that  the  Sera- 
jevo  assasinations  were  planned  and  the  mur- 
derers equipped  in  Belgrade.  The  note  was  an 
absolute  ultimatum  which  no  sovereign  state 
with  any  pride  at  all  could  accept.  Yet  the 
Serbian  Goverment  exceeded  all  expectations 
in  the  direction  of  conciliation,  expressing  its 
readiness  to  refer  any  point  either  to  the  Hague 
Tribunal  or  to  the  Powers  who  had  taken  a 
part  in  the  settlement  of  annexation  of  Bosnia- 
Herzegovina. 

A  conciliatory  answer  was  neither  expected 
nor  wanted,  however.  The  very  evening  of 
the  delivery  of  the  Serbian  reply  the  Austrian 
minister  was  instructed  to  leave  Belgrade,  and 
on  the  28th  of  July,  1914,  Austria  declared  war 
on  Serbia. 

Within  the  next  two  days  Austria  awoke 
to  the  startling  fact  that  Russia  was  beginning 
to  move.  In  spite  of  the  German  ambassador's 
assurances  that  the  Czar  would  not  and  could 
not  fight,  he  had  decided  to  intervene.  At  this 
appearance  of  a  full-grown  adversary  Vienna 
pulled  a  very  long  face  and,  on  July  31st,  the 
Ballplatz  suddenly  consented  to  eliminate  from 
the  ultimatum  those  demands  which  involved 
a  violation  of  the  sovereignty  of  Serbia,  to 
discuss  certain  others,  and  in  short  to  reopen 
the  whole  question.  It  was  too  late.  Germany, 
having  jockeyed  Austria  into  a  position  from 
which  there  was  no  escape,  declared  war  on 
Russia  the  next  day.  Other  declarations  fol- 
lowed in  a  rapid  succession  and  the  world's 
greatest  cataclysm  started. 

THE  BRAVE  SERBIANS 

How  severely  punished  were  the  three 
successive  Austro-Hungarian  "punitive  expe- 
ditions" by  the  brave  armies  of  the  little 
kingdom  and  how  the  survivors  of  Kumanovo, 
Bregalnica,  Jadar  and  Belgrade  were,  one  year 
later,  attacked  by  the  combined  forces  of 


SLAV'S  APPfiAL 

Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  Bulgaria,  Turkey 
and  even  the  brigandry  of  Albania,  is  still  too 
fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  world  to  be  recalled 
here.  Before  the  tremendous  multitude  of 
German  cannon,  which  in  the  words  of  King 
Peter,  "prevented  with  their  range  the  very 
sight  of  their  gunners",  the  remainder  of  the 
Serbian  army  had  been  ebliged  to  retreat  and 
to  reorganize  itself  for  fresh  attempts.  And  if 
the  fortune  of  war  has  really  turned  to  the 
Allies  the  Serbs  may  succeed  not  only  in  restor- 
ing their  lost  kingdoms  of  Serbia  and  Monte- 
negro but  also  to  free  and  unite  into  a  power- 
ful homogenous  state  their  brothers  across  the 
Sava,  Danube  and  Drina  as  also  those  living  on 
the  Adriatic  Coast.  Thus  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that,  recognizing  the  principle  of  nationality, 
the  great  national  unions  of  France,  Germany 
and  Italy  will  be  followed  by  that  of  'the 
South  Slavs  to  which  group  belong  the  Ser- 
bians, Croats,  and  the  Slovenians. 

THE  SERBO-CROATS  AND  SLOVENES 

UNDER  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY'S 

MISRULE. 

A  'Southern  Slav  patriot  has  said  that 
no  greater  misfortune  has  befallen  the 
Southern  Slavs  than  to  pass  under  dominion 
of  civilized  Austria.  Had  they  been  obliged 
to  share  the  fate  of  their  brothers,  the  Serbs 
they  would  certainly  have  tasted  all  the 
misery  of  the  Turkish  yoke,  but  to-day  they 
would  be  free,  as  an  independent  state  with  a 
right  to  their  own  national  and  intellectual 
development.  The  one  thing  Turkey  has  left 
untouched  in  the  Serbs  —  the  heart  of  the 
people  —  is  the  very  thing  that  Austria  has 
sought  to  destroy  in  her  Southern  Slav  sub- 
jects. Turkish  captivity  has  steeled  the  hearts 
of  the  Slavs  she  oppressed,  but  Austrian  cap- 
tivity has  cankered  them  and  made  them 
effete. 

In  many  respects  this  pessimistic  view  is 
justified.  The  struggle  of  the  Southern  Slavs 
for  national  life  has  passed  through  many 
phases,  and  has  exhausted  itself  in  many  more. 
The  Croats  have  elected,  after  the  extinction 
of  their  royal  family  in  1102,  the  King  Kolo- 
man  of  Hungary  for  their  own.  After  the 
passing  away  of  the  house  of  Arpad,  they 
elected  independently  of  Hungary  Ferdinand 
I  of  Hapsburg  as  their  ruler  (in  1527).  By 
their  own  free  will  they  adopted  the  prag- 


THE  SOUTHERN 

inatical  sanction  of  1712,  by  which  they  ap- 
proved the  accession  of  female,  where  there 
was  no  male,  as  heir  to  the  throne.  For  cen- 
turies the  Southern  Slavs  stood  under  the 
protection  of  "Heaven  militant,"  and  his 
motto  was,  "For  faith  and  freedom."  During 
the  time  of  Turkish  power  they  aquired  a 
noble  name  ' '  Antemurale  (  hristianitatis" 
(outworks  of  Christianity),  for  their  courage- 
ous watching  over  the  prosperity  of  Christian- 
ity and  the  culture  of  Europe. 

As  a  distinctly  autonomous  state,  Croatia 
dealt  with  Austria  and  with  Hungary  on  the 
principle  of  equality,  and  she  was  recognized 
as  such  so  long  as  she  was  needed  for  their 
defense. 

German  "kultur"  and  Magyar  lack  of 
culture  were  held  in  equal  abomination  by  the 
Slav  nations,  upon  whom  they  were  to  be  in- 
flicted, and  the  ruthless  spoliation  to  which 
they  were'  likewise  subjected  engendered  a 
deep-seated  animosity.  The  Northern  Slavs, 
who  possess  more  practical  business  capacity 
than  the  Southern,  did  not  allow  themselves 
to  be  economically  strangled,  and  even  con- 
trived to  hold  their  own  in  this  respect;  where- 
as, the  Southern  Slavs,  being  mainly  an 
agricultural  people,  found  themselves  the 
helpless  victims  of  Austria  and  Hungarian 
rapacity.  Dalmatia,  one  of  the  loveliest  spots 
in  Europe,  has  for  the  last  century  known  no 
privilege  except  that  of  paying  taxes,  and  Aus- 
tria's maladministration  of  that  country  has 
become  proverbial. 

Croatia  and  Slavonia  fare  little  better. 
They  have  to  pay  56  per  cent  of  their  revenues 
to  Hungary.  This  tax  figures  under  the  head 
of  "contributions  to  mutual  interests,"  chief- 
ly represented  by  the  railways  and  the  postal 
system.  The  annual  income  from  these  two 
sources  amount  to  250,000,000  crowns,  but  of 
this  Croatia  never  receives  a  penny !  The  net 
profit  all  goes  to  Hungary,  who  brazenly 
employs  it  as  a  subvention  to  the  Magyar 
propaganda  in  Croatia.  The  condition  of 
Carniola  and  Istria  is  almost  as  deplorable  as 
that  of  Dalmatia,  and  in  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina the  Austro-Hungarian  government  has 
for  thirtyfive  years  built  villages  "after  the 
pattern  of  Potemkin,"  for  the  edification  of 
foreign  journalists,  while  the  people  have  been 
left  to  starve  or  sink  into  poverty  and 
ignorance. 

The  numerous  foreign  tourists  who  have 


SLAV'S  APPEAL  16 

traveled  in  these  beautiful  countries  have  seen 
nothing  of  Austria's  "work  of  civilization," 
as  they  are  kept  to  the  beaten  tracks  specially 
prepared  for  them,  and  they  only  see  the  coun- 
try like  a  carefully  staged  panorama  on  the 
films  of  the  imperial  and  royal  picture  show! 
But  had  these  travelers  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  abject  misery  of  the  people,  their  pleasure 
in  these  beautiful  coutries  would  have  been 
spoilt,  and  they  would  have  better  understood 
why  the  inhabitants  are  rebelling  against  the 
"blessing"  of  Austro-Hungarian  rule. 

The  history  of  these  provinces  during  the 
past  generation  is  one  of  neglect  and  mis- 
government.  Croatia  has  been  exploited  by 
the  Magyars,  and  the  narrow  interests  of 
Buda-Pest  have  prevented  railway  develop- 
ment and  hampered  local  industries  by  skill- 
ful manipulation  of  tariffs  and  taxation.  A 
further  result  is  that  even  today  Dalmatia  has 
no  railway  connection  with  the  rest  of  Europe, 
and  those  of  Bosnia  are  artificially  directed 
toward  Buda-Pest,  rather  than  toward  Zagreb, 
Vienna  and  Western  Europe.  It  is  not  much 
to  say,  that  the  situation  of  those  provinces 
had  become  less  favorable  than  it  was  at 
earlier  periods  of  their  history;  for  the  old 
system  of  trade  routes  had  broken  down  there 
as  elsewhere  in  Europe,  but  had  not  been  re- 
placed by  modern  communications.  The 
century-old  roads  built  by  the  French  are  the 
only  roads  in  Dalmatia  and  Croatia,  although 
the  French  rule  under  Napoleon  was  only  of 
short  duration,  it  did  more  for  the  Southern 
Slav  lands  in  three  years  than  Austria  did 
during  the  century  that  followed. 

In  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  Austria  pur- 
sued the  same  heartless  policy.  Out  of  the 
three  religions  of  one  people  she  made  three 
nationalities,  and  then  fostered  dissensions 
between  them.  Austria  was  not  in  the  least 
interested  in  the  prosperity  of  the  country, 
and  merely  created  an  intolerable  chaos  by  her 
political  intrigue  in  a  land  that  had  already 
suffered  beyond  endurance.  Her  evidences  of 
civilization  exhibited  before  the  world  were 
pure  humbug. 

There  have  always  been  two  fatal  ob- 
stacles to  an  Austrian  solution  of  the  Southern 
Slav  problem  —  Magyar  hegemony  and  the 
dual  system,  to  which  alone  that  hegemony 
owed  its  survival.  Under  the  compromise  of 
1867,  the  dual  monarchy  is  composed  of  two 
equal  and  separate  states:  the  empire  of  Aus- 


16  THE    SOUTHERN 

tria  and  kingdom  of  Hungary,  each  possessing 
a  distinct  parliament  and  cabinet  of  its  own, 
but  both  sharing  between  them  the  three  joint 
ministries  of  foreign  affairs,  war  and  finance. 

This  system  really  secured  the  political 
power  in  Austria  and  Hungary  to  two  races — 
the  Germans  and  the  Magyars,  and  they,  as 
the  strongest  in  each  country,  fought  off  the 
next  strongest,  the  Poles  and  the  Croats,  by 
the  grant  of  autonomy  to  Galicia  and  Croatia. 

Thus  it  came  to  an  agreement  between 
the  Croats  and  Hungarian  in  1868.  This  agree- 
ment by  no  means  satisfied  the  aspirations  of 
the  Croats,  but  it  gave  them  the  required  foot- 
ing against  Magyar  oligarchy.  It  was  but  a 
short  period  after  this  agreement  was  signed 
that  it  became  a  mere  "scrap  of  paper."  The 
"Ban"  (governor)  of  Croatia  became  a  mere 
exponent  of  the  Hungarian  government.  Con- 
tempt of  the  constitution  and  corruption  were 
the  first  fruits  of  the  agreement  under 
Hungarian  influence  in  Croatia. 

Inability  of  the  goverment  to  get  the 
majority  of  the  representatives  for  their  un- 
constitutional ruling  was  a  cause  for  the  policy 
of  brutal  imperialism  then  inaugurated  which 
remained  in  force  to  this  day.  From  '1883  to 
1903  Count  Carl  Khuen  Hedervary  was  ban 
of  Croatia,  and  the  twenty  years  of  his 
administration  have  been  the  blackest  period 
as  regards  political,  economic  and  personal 
thraldom. 

In  the  ollowing  ten  years  six  administra- 
tive heads  were  changed,  some  of  them  reigning 
for  only  two  months.  The  popular  rising  of 
1903  opened  new  channels  for  the  national 
struggle ;  it  was  also  the  prelude  to  the  hardest 
and  bitterest  time  that  the  Southern  Slavs  have 
yet  been  called  upon  to  face.  Two  years  later, 
in  the  election  of  1905,  the  opposition  parties 
won  a  brilliant  victory.  Not  one  goverment 
candidate  was  returned.  The  sessions  of  these 
parliaments  were  very  short  because  the  depu- 
ties refused  to  pass  such  goverment  bills  which 
were  against  the  interest  of  the  people,  and 
there  are  very,  very  few  for  the  poeple. 

The  history  of  Croatia  is  the  history  of 
*  'tepeated    persecutions    and    tyranny.    Whole 
'•   books  might  be  written  to  illustrate  the  con- 
tentions that  in  matter  of  education,  admini- 
stration and  justice,  of  association  and  assem- 
bly, of  the  franchise  and  the  press,  the  Croats 
have  long  been  the  victims  of  repression  which 


SLAV'S    APPEAL 

is  without  any  parallel  in  civilized  Europe. 
But  the  people  stood  firm.  The  dire  sufferings 
of  recent  years  have  begotten  a  new  and 
healthy  movement,  which  includes  the  entire 
youth  of  Croatia.  They  began  to  go  along  the 
path  which  leads  away  from  Hungary,  and 
away  from  Austria,  back  to  union  with  their 
scattered  kindred.  Their  aim  is  the  establish- 
ment of  a  great,  free  and  independent  Jugo- 
slavia (Southern  Slav  State). 

The  Southern  Slavs  in  Dalmatia,  Carniola 
and  Istra  fared  little  better  than  their  brothers 
in  Croatia  and  Slavonia.  We  have  already 
alluded  to  the  economic  neglect  of  Dalmatia.  In 
politics,  Germanization  was  practiced  in  much 
the  same  way  as  Magyarization  in  Croatia. 
Dalmatia,  unfortunately,  does  not  enjoy  inde- 
pendence, even  on  paper,  and  thus  her  oppres- 
sion could  wear  a  perfectly  constitutional  guise. 
The  Dalmatian  "sabor",  like  that  of  Istria  and 
Carniola,  is  an  assembly  quite  at  the  mercy  of 
the  viceroy  for  the  time  being,  who  would 
never  dream  of  convoking  it  unless  he  had 
made  quite  sure  that  no  inconvenient  resolu- 
tions would  be  passed.  As  a  rule  these  "sabors" 
enjoy  prolonged  periods  of  rest,  and  the  people 
are  only  represented  by  their  delegates  in  the 
Viennese  reichstrat,  but  they  are  too  few. 

THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV  HISTORY  AND  THE 
IDEA  OF  UNITY. 

SOUTHERN  SLAV,  or  Jugoslav,  history 
from  the  earliest  times  up  to  the  present  day, 
presents  the  record  of  a  people  who,  though 
stubborn  in  resistance,  are  by  no  means  aggress- 
ive, and  wrho,  notwithstanding  the  great  and 
exceptional  misfortunes  that  have  befallen 
them,  have  succeeded  in  preserving  their 
national  individuality,  and  in  asserting  them- 
selves as  a  homegeneous  nation  full  of  youth 
and  vitality. 

In  virtue  of  their  geographical  position, 
which  makes  the  Jugoslav  lands  the  most  direct 
link  between  the  East  and  West — that  is  to  say, 
between  Western,  Central,  and  Southern 
Europe  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Balkans,  the 
Adriatic,  and  Asia  Minor  on  the  other — these 
territories  have  always  been  the  arena  of  great 
political  rivalries  and  fierce  racial  conflicts. 
Many  powerful  states,  ambitious  of  conquest, 
and  aspiring  towards  aggrandizement — Byzan- 
tium, Hungary,  Turkey,  and  Venice — have  for 
centuries  in  turn  made  countless  efforts  to 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S    APPEAL 


17 


break  the  Jugoslav  resistance,  which  thwarted 
their  ambitions  and  desires.  Despite  apparent 
temporary  success,  these  efforts  have  proved 
virtually  fruitless,  and  have  so  far  failed  to 
bring  about  the  desired  results.  It  is  true 
that,  during  the  course  of  these  gigantic 
struggles,  the  Jugoslavs  have  outwardly  suc- 
cumbed and  been  subjugated  by  other  nations. 
It  is  also  true  that  they  were  by  adverse  cir- 
cumstances checked  in  the  full  tide  of  progress, 
and  therefore  failed  to  crystallize  their  civiliza- 
tion or  to  establish  their  union.  Nevertheless, 
at  the  cost  of  tenacious  struggles  and  countless 
sacrifices  they  have  at  last  succeeded  in  creat- 
ing conditions  which  ought  to  assure  their  union 
in  the  future.  A  considerable  portion  of  the 
Jugoslav  territory  has  formed  itself  into  the 
independent  kingdoms  of  Serbia  and  Monte- 
negro. Such  of  the  Jugoslavs  as  are  still 
subject  to  a  foreign  yoke,  look  fodward  to  a 
union  with  these  two  states;  they  are  keenly 
conscious  of  belonging  to  the  same  nation,  and 
deeply  desirous  of  forming  part  of  the  one 
motherland. 

A  close  study  of  the  history  of  our  nation 
cannot  fail  to  reveal  the  fact,  that  from  its 
origin  to  the  present  day  and  throughout  the 
centuries  it  presents  a  record  of  continuous 
efforts  to  realise  the  great  idea  of  Southern 
Slav  Unity.  These  efforts  can  be  plainly 
discerned  in  spite  of  the  4reat  obstacles  which 
have  at  times  partially  obscured  this.  The 
leading  idea  in  all  our  progress  and  develop- 
ment was  the  idea  of  Southern  Slav  unity. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  earlier  periods  of 
our  history,  the  age  of  the  Serbian  prince 
Caslav  (10th  century)  and  the  Croatian  King 
Zvonimir  (llth  century)  and  the  Slovene 
Emperor  Samo  (7th  century).  What  do  we 
find  but  that  these  various  early  attempts  to 
form  small  States  merely  represent  the  first 
beginnings  of  he  creation  of  our  national 
Unity,  without  regard  to  the  fact  that  this  or 
that  branch  of  the  nation  belongs  to  the 
ethnical  unit  of  the  Serbs,  Croats  or  Slovenes? 

Or  take  the  great  struggle  for  the  use  of 
the  Slav  tongue  in  Divine  Service — a  struggle 
which  began  in  the  days  of  the  first  Slav 
apostles  Cyril  and  Method  (9th  century),  and 
is  still  being  fought  out  at  the  present  day? 
What  is  the  inner  meaning  of  this  struggle  if 
not  one  aspect  of  the  great  struggle  for  national 
Unity  on  the  part  of  the  whole  nation?  And 
is  not  this  thousand-year-old  struggle,  which 


has  been  maintained  in  the  face  of  great  odds 
and  is  being  prosecuted  to-day  with  as  much 
vigour  as  in  past  ages,  in  itself  the  most 
beautiful  proof  that  the  different  provinces 
inhabited  by  our  nation  desire  to  establish  at 
least  an  ethical  union,  if  they  can  attain  to  no 
other?  Even  in  Istria,  in  the  most  remote  of 
our  western  Catholic  districts,  the  Southern 
Slavs  desire  to  hear  Divine  Service  held  in  the 
Slav  tongue,  simply  that  they  may  not  lose  this 
bond  of  union  between  themselves  and  their 
Orthodox  brothers  in  the  east,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Vardar,  where  the  Slavs  have  never  been 
denied  the  right  to  use  their  native  tongue  in 
the  Church.  This  and  this  alone  is  the  true 
meaning  of  this  struggle. 

What  is  the  true  significance  of  the  labours 
and  achievements  of  the  Serbian  Emperor 
Dusan  (14th  century)  and  his  contemporary 
Tvrtko,  King  of  Bosnia— these  two  great  rulers, 
one  of  whom  was  lord  over  the  eastern  half 
of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  while  the  other  ruled 
the  west — unless  they  were  efforts  to  accom- 
plish the  Union  of  all  our  nation,  which  unfort- 
unately could  not  be  realised  at  that  time, 
owing  to  insurmountable  obstacles? 

Finally,  what  were  those  desperate  and 
un remittent  struggles  against  the  Turks,  in 
which  every  branch  of  the  Southern  Slav  nation 
has  borne  its  share — whether  dwelling  in 
Serbia,  Montenegro,  Bosnia,  Hercegovina,  Dal- 
matia,  Southern  Hungary,  Slavonia,  Croatia, 
Istria,  Carinthia,  Carniola  or  Styria — but 
simply  one  great  struggle  on  the  part  of  one 
single  people?  When  numbers  of  our  nation 
migrated  north  and  west  from  the  Balkan? 
before  the  overwhelming  pressure  of  the  Turks, 
this  circumstance  merely  led  to  the  strengthen- 
ing of  the  spirit  of  the  race.  It  was  due  to  this 
that  Marko  Kraljevic,  a  Serbian  King  of  Mace- 
donia, became  the  chief  national  hero  of  the 
entire  Serb,  Croat  and  Slovene  nation,  and  that 
the  popular  ballads  telling  of  his  exploits  are 
sung  and  known  wherever  the  Southern  Slav 
tongue  is  spoken. 

When  finally  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth 
century  gave  us  thebeginnings  of  emancipation 
and  national  re-birth,  it  also  brought  the  syste- 
matic realisation  of  our  national  unity.  It 
would  be  a  mistake  to  believe  that  Kara  George 
Petrovic,  the  leader  of  the  Serbian  insurgents, 
and  Miles  Obrenovic,  he  first  prince  of  the 
country,  had  only  the  emancipation  of  Serbia 
in  their  minds,  or  that  Petar  I  and  Petar  II 


18  THE    SOUTHERN 

Petrovic  Njegos,  Prince-Bishops  of  Montenegro 
thought  merely  of  freeing  their  own  particular 
country,  because  they  did  not  at  the  time 
attempt  the  deliverance  of  the  other  Southern 
Slav  countries  as  well.  No.  The  souls  of 
both  Serbs  and  Montenegrins  are  too  deeply 
steeped  in  the  great  traditions  of  the  Serbian 
Empire  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  have  forgotten 
them  at  such  a  critical  time.  This  great  tradi- 
tion has  ever  guided  the  liberators  of  the  two 
19th  century  Serb  States  in  their  mission  of 
emancipation,  and  without  it  their  amazing 
success  would  be  simply  inexplicable.  All 
popular  poems,  celebrating  their  achievements, 
are  full  of  reminiscenes  of  the  glories  of  the 
Mediaeval  Kings  and  Emperors  of  Serbia. 

It  would  be  equally  a  mistake  to  believe 
that  the  national  awakening  of  the  Croats  and 
Slovenes  in  the  19th  century  was  a  purely 
local  renascence  due  to  a  struggle  for  material 
welfare.  No.  Since  the  beginning  of  the 
Illyrian  movement,  both  Croats  and  Slovenes 
have  been  inspired  by  the  ideas  of  their  great 
Kings  Zvonimir  and  'Samo,  and  still  more  by 
the  idea  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Illyria, 
•which  included  the  whole  of  the  Balkan 
Peninsula. 


SLAV'S   APPEAL 

It  is  only  natural  that  during  the  19th 
century  the  idea  of  Southern  Slav  unity  was 
perforce  reduced  to  an  ideal  of  local  and 
partial  deliverance.  It  would  have  been  ^ash 
and  foolish  to  attempt  this  vastest  programme 
of  all  at  a  time  when  even  the  smallest  details 
in  his  programme  had  yet  to  be  achieved.  This 
fact  was  due  to  circumstances  and  the  exingen- 
cies  of  the  time,  but  does  not  in  the  least  prove 
that  the  great  Southern  Slav  idea  was  lost 
sight  of.  Indeed,  it  was  sometimes  advisable 
to  conceal  it.  When  the  Serbian  peasants  em- 
barked on  their  struggle  with  the  Turks,  and 
took  diplomatic  action  with  the  Great  Powers 
in  order  to  reap  the  fruits  of  their  military 
successes,  they  could  not  openly  advertise  the 
great  ideal  of  the  national  emancipation  and 
unification  of  our  whole  nation,  because  the 
very  Chancellories  to  whom  they  were  apeal- 
ing  would  haye  looked  askance  at  it.  On  the 
contrary,  they  had  to  represent  this  idea  as 
being  utterly  unimportant,  so  that  they  might 
first  realise  the  organisation  of  their  own 
little  State,  which  would  then  serve  as  a  basis 
for  the  greater  State  in  the  future. 


MESSAGE  FROM  DR.  E.  W.  SETON-WATSON. 

(Autor  of  "The  Southern   Slav  Question"  and  other 
Books  dealing  with   S.   E.   Europe.) 


Those  who  advocate  the  cause  of  Southern 
Slav  Unity  are  to-day  no  longer  voices  crying 
in  the  wilderness;  for  it  is  becoming  more  and 
more  widely  recognized  that  the  cause  of  Serbia 
and  of  her  oppressed  kinsmen  in  Austria- 
Hungary  represents  a  vital  European  and 
British  interest.  The  conquest  of  Serbia  by 
the  Central  Powers  alters  nothing  in  the 
Southern  Slav  Programme,  even  though  it 
renders  its  realization  more  remote;  and  it  is 
a  happy  omen  for  the  future  that  it  should 
have  been  in  London  that  the  Serbian  Prince- 
Regent  publicly  pinned  his  faith  to  the  Jugoslav 
idea. 

Either  Serbia  must  achieve  the  unity  of  the 
race,  or  she,  and  Montenegro  with  her,  must 
share  the  fate  of  Bosnia  and  be  swallowed  up 
in  a  victorious  Austria.  Any  other  solution 
would  mean  a  continuance  of  the  intolerable 
state  of  misrule  and  consequent  unrest  which 


for  the  past  decade  has  kept  the  Eastern 
Adriatic  shores  and  their  hinterland  in  a  fer- 
ment, and  contributed  so  materially  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  Great  War.  Only  a  radical 
solution  of  the  Southern  Slav  question  can 
assure  permanent  peace  to  the  Balkan  Penin- 
sula. Without  Southern  Slav  unity  there  can 
be  no  serious  barrier  to  those  designs  of  Pan- 
German  hegemony  from  the  North  Sea  to  the 
Persian  Gulf  which  prompted  William  II.  and 
his  advisers  to  unchain  a  wolrd-war. 

Not  even  the  tragedy  of  last  winter  can 
make  us  despair.  Serbia  has  survived  five  cen- 
turies of  grinding  Turkish  oppression,  and  she 
will  rise  once  more  Pho3nix-like  from  the  ashes 
of  Austrian  neglect,  Magyar  tyranny,  and 
Bulgarian  treachery. 


R.  W.  SETON-WATSON. 


June  20, 1916. 


PART  II. 


THE  JUGOSLAV  COMMITTEE  AND  THE 
SOUTHERN  SLAV  PROGRAMME. 


The  suddenness  with  which  Austria- 
Hungary  brought  this  war  upon  the  nations  of 
Europe  placed  the  Jugoslavs  under  Austro- 
Hungarian  rule  in  an  extremely  difficult 
position.  There  was  no  time  to  organize  a 
strong  resistance  against  the  systematic  reign 
of  terror  with  which  they  were  confronted. 
According  to  plans  carefully  laid  beforehand 
the  whole  Austrian  Jugoslav  manhood  of  mili- 
tary age  was  at  once  summoned  to  the  colours, 
and  almost  all  representatives  of  the  educated 
professional  classes,  especially  the  leading 
men  of  the  nation,  were  imprisoned.  Only  a 
very  few  prominent  men  were  away  from 
Austria  at  the  time  or  were  able  to  effect  their 
escape.  These  emigrants  opened  their  patri- 
otic campaign  in  Rome,  where  they  began  by 
publishing  protests  against  the  reign  of  terror 
in  the  Jugoslav  countries,  and  against  the 
mendacious  reports  from  Austrian  and  Hungar- 
ian official  sources,  whereby  efforts  were  made 
to  represent  the  Jugoslavs  as  being  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  aggressive  pretensions  of  their 
oppressors. 

The  Jugoslav  Committee  has  been  com- 
posed of  the  following  members : 

President : 

Dr.  Ante  Trumbic,  President  of  the  Croat 
National  Party  in  the  Diet  of  Dalmatia, 
late  Mayor  of  Split  (Spalato),  and  late 
Member  for  Zadar  (Zara)  in  the  Austrian 
Parliament.  (Croat  of  Split,  Dalmatia.) 
Members : 

Dr.  Ante  Biankini,  President  of  the  Jugo- 
slav Committee  for  the  U.  S.  America, 
Chicago.  (Croat,  of  Starigrad,  Dalmatia). 

Jovo  Banjanin,  late  Member  of  the  Croatian 
Parliament  and  Delegate  to  the  Parlia- 
ment at  Budapest.  (Serb,  of  Croatia). 

Dr.  Ivo  De  Giulli,  Town  Councillor  of  Du- 
brovnik  (Ragusa,  Dalmatia).  Croat,  of 
Dubrovnik,  Dalmatia. 

Dr.  Gustav  Gregorin,  Member  in  the  Aus- 


trian Parliament.   (Slovene,  of  Trst 
(Trieste). 

Dr.  Julije  Gazzari,  Town  Councillor  of  Si- 
benik  (Sebenico)  Dalmatia.  (Croat). 

Rev.  Don  Niko  Grskovic,  President  of  the 
Croatian  League  of  U.  S.  A.  in  Cleveland, 
O.  (Croat,  of  Vrbnik,  Istria). 

Dr.  Hinko  Hinkovic,  Member  of  the  Croa- 
tian Parliament,  and  Delegate  to  the  Par- 
liament of  Budapest.  (Croat,  of  Croatia). 

Dr.  Josip  JedlovskX  Secretary  of  the  Slo- 
vene Society  "Edinost"  and  of  the  Croat 
School  Union  in  Trst  (Croat,  of  Trst). 

Ciro  Kamenarovic,  Gen.  Mgr.  of  the  "Adria- 
tic Bank"  in  Trst  (Serb,  of  Kotor,  Catta- 
ro,  Dalmatia). 

Milan  Marjanovic,  Editor  of  "Narodno  Je- 
dinstvo"  (National  Unity)  in  Zagreb 
(Agram),  Croatia.  Croat,  of  Kastav,  Is- 
tria). 

Ivan  Mestrovic,  Sculptor  (Croat,  of  Ota  vice, 
Dalmatia). 

Dr.  Mice  Micic,  Town  Councillor  of  Dubrov- 
nik (Croat,  of  Dubrovnik,  Dalmatia). 

Dr.  Franko  Potocnjak,  late  Member  of  the 
Croatian  Parliament  and  Delegate  to  the 
Parliament  in  Budapest.  (Croat,  of  Novi, 
Croatia). 

Prof.  Mihailo  Pupin,  Professor  at  Columbia 
University,  New  York,  President  of  the 
Serbian  League  "Sloga"  and  of  the  "Srp- 
ska  Narodna  Odbrana".  (Serb,  of  Pance- 
vo,  Banat,  South  Hungary). 

Dr.  Milan  Srskic,  Member  of  the  Bosnian 
Diet.  (Serb,  of  Bosnia). 

Frano  Supilo,  Editor  of  "Novi  List",  Rije- 
ka  (Fiume),  late  Member  of  the  Croatian 
Parliament,  and  Delegate  to  the  Parlia- 
ment in  Budapest.  (Croat). 

Dr.  Nikola  Stojanovic,  Member  of  the  Bos- 
nian Diet.  (Serb,  of  Herzegovina). 

Dr.  Dinko  Trinajstic,  President  of  the  "Slo- 
veno-Croatian  Society  in  Istria",  and 
Member  of  the  Istrian  Diet.  (Croat,  of 
Vrbnik,  Istria). 

Dusan  Vasiljevic,  Vice-President  of  the  Serb 


20 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S   APPEAL 


National  Union   of  Bosnia-Herzegovina". 
(Serb,  of  Herzegovina). 
Dr.  Bognmil  Vosnjak,  Professor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Zagreb,  and  Editor  of  the  "Ve- 
da" (Slovene,  of  Gorica,  Gorkia). 
Dr.  Nikola  Supanic,  Curator  of  the  Ethno- 
graphical Museum.   (Slovene,  of  Metlika, 
Garni  ola). 

During  its  plenary  meeting  of  June  1916, 
the  Jugoslav  Committee  elected  the  following 
members : 

M.  Pasko  Baburica,  President  of  the  "Jugo- 
slav" National  Defence"  in  Valparaiso, 
Chile,  (Croat,  of  Dalmatia). 
Louis  Mitrovic,  (Croat)  and  Louis  Moro 
(Croat),  both  of  Dalmatia,  and  residing 
in  South  America,  where  they  own  large 
commercial  interests. 

On  May  1,  1915,  the  Committe  presented  a 
memorandum  dealing  with  the  national  aims 
of  the  Jugoslavs  and  the  desperate  position  in 
which  they  are  now  placed,  to  M.  Delcasse, 
French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  to  M. 
Isvolsky,  Russian  Ambassador  in  Paris.  Sub- 
sequently the  Committee,  having  in  the  mean- 
time transferred  its  headquarters  to  London, 
published  a  manifesto  to  the  British  Parlia- 
ment and  to  the  nation  on  May  12,  1915,  and 
on  July  2,  1915,  it  presented  a  duplicate  of  the 
Paris  Memorandum  to  Lord  Crewe,  who  was 
at  the  time  representing  Sir  Edward  Grey  at 
the  Foreign  Office. 

Through  its  members  and  representatives 
and  Members  of  Parliament,  the  Parliamenta- 
ry Committee  is  in  touch  with  the  Ministers 
and  the  Press  in  all  the  capitals  of  the  Allied 
Powers;  it  is  in  close  contact  with  the  re- 
sponsible leaders  of  its  free  and  independent 


kinsman  in  Serbia  and  Montenegro,  in  the 
unredeemned  part  of  the  nation  still  en- 
slaved in  Austria-Hungary,  and  with  the 
numerous  Jugoslav  emigrant  communities 
in  the  North  and  South  Americas,  and  in  the 
British  Colonies. 

The  Committee  have  been  deeply  gratified 
by  the  sympathy  and  appreciation  of  their  la- 
bours on  behalf  of  their  country  and  country- 
men extended  to  them  in  political  and  intel- 
lectual circles  among  the  Allied  nations ;  their 
thanks  are  equally  due  to  the  Press  which  in 
all  the  friendly  countries  has  taken  a  keen  in- 
terest in  their  cause  and  given  it  full  attention. 

The  Jugoslav  Committee,  whose  head- 
quarters are  in  London,  England  (54.  Chejp- 
stow  Villas,  Bayswater),  has  offices  in  follow- 
ing countries: 

France  (Paris) ; 

Russia  (Petrograd  and  Odessa)  ; 

Switzerland  (Geneve) ; 

United  States  (Cleveland,  0.)  ; 

Chile   (Valparaiso). 

The  Jugoslav  Committee  publishes: 

"The  Southern  Slav  Bulletin"  (Semi- 
monthly) in  London. 

"Le  Bulletin  Yougoslave"  (Paris). 

"The  Southern  Slav  Library"  (1.  "The 
Southern  'Slav  Programme";  2.  "The  South- 
ern Slav  Land  and  People;  3.  "A  sketch  of 
the  Southern  Slav  History";  4.  "Southern 
Slav  Culture";  5.  "Idea  of  Southern  Slav  Uni- 
ty"; 6.  "The  Slovenians". 

"Biblioteque  Yougoslave".  (Paris.  Pub- 
lishes all  the  above  pamphlets  in  French). 

"The  Map  of  the  Jugoslav  Territory." 

"The  Persecution  of  the  Jugoslav"  (The 
same  in  French). 


THE  JUGOSLAV  MEMORANDUM. 


A  PART  OP  THE  MEMORANDUM  OF  THE  JUGOSLAV  COMMITTEE  IN  LONDON 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  REPRESENTATIVES    OF  FRANCE, 

RUSSIA  AND  ENGLAND  IN  1915. 


All  Jugoslavs,  whether  Serbs,  Croats,  or 
Slovenes,  confidently  believe  that  this  war  will 
bring  about  the  union  of  all  the  branches  and 
all  the  territory  of  their  race  into  one  inde- 
pendent State.  This  belief  is  based  on  the 
solemn  and  oft-repeated  assurances  given  by 
the  representatives  of  the  Triple  Entente 
touching  the  realization  and  sure  maintance  of 
the  principles  of  nationality.  It  has  saved  the 
still  enslaved  nations  of  our  race  from  despair ; 
it  has  been  the  mainspring  of  the  moral  force 
whence  arose  the  prodigious  heroism  of  Ser- 
bia and  Montenegro  when,  by  blocking  the  ad- 
vance of  the  Austrian  armies,  they  rendered 
such  gallant  service  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies. 

Serbia  and  Montenegro  are  not  waging  a 
war  of  aggression  to  extend  their  frontiers. 
These  two  Serbian  states  are  the  champions 
of  liberation  for  all  Jugoslav  alike,  as  are  also 
our  helpers  in  the  common  task  of  establishing 
our  national  existence  in  our  own  united  coun- 
try. 

THE    GUIDING    PRINCIPLE    IN    JUGOSLAV 
HISTORY. 

This  idea  of  national  and  political  unity 
was  in  the  minds  of  the  great  rulers  of  our 
national  Empires  before  the  Turkish  invasion ; 
it  was  the  ideal  of  all  martyrs  of  our  race  dur- 
ing the  time  of  the  Ottoman  oppression;  it  in- 
spired our  national  poetry  and  the  works  of 
the  great  thinkers  and  poets  of  Dubrovnik 
(Ragusa),  to  whom  Napoleon  I.  owed  his  idea 
of  a  united  Illyria;  it  gave  strenght  to  the 
heroic  resistance  of  the  Montenegrins,  and  to 
the  rising  under  Karadjordje  which  gave  birth 
to  the  modern  Serbia.  It  directed  every  action 
of  the  great  Njegos,  inspired  the  policy  of 
Price  Michael,  and  has  been  the  goal  of  the 
entire  house  of  Karadjordjevic  and  of  Petro- 
vic.  It  accomplished  the  renascence  of  the  Cro- 
ats and  Slovenes,  which  bore  such  heroic  fruit 
in  the  struggles  of  1848,  and  irradiates  the  life- 
work  of  the  great  Bishop  Strossmayer.  It  was 
the  primary  cause  of  the  long  and  often  sangui- 
nary struggles  of  the  Croats  for  their  inde- 


pendence and  unity,  and  of  all  the  national 
struggles  in  Dalmatia,  Istria,  Rieka  (Fiume), 
and  South  Hungary,  in  the  'Slovene  lands,  and 
in  Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Political  deliverence, 
the  integrity  of  our  national  territory,  and  the 
foundation  of  a  unified  State  have  been  the 
final  aim  of  all  Pan-Croatian  and  Pan-Serbian 
aspirations,  of  every  constitutional  struggle  and 
of  every  riot  and  insurrection  throughout  our 
lands,  whether  in  Austria-Hungary  or  in  the 
Balkans.  Strenghthened  by  the  principles  of 
democracy,  and  crowned  by  the  successes  of 
the  Serbian  arms  in  the  recent  Balkan  wars, 
this  idea  has  now  assumed  a  precise  and  de- 
finite form.  The  present  war  has  given  it  the 
sanction  and  support  of  the  civilized  world, 
and  our  national  ideal  is  ripe  for  realization. 

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN    OPPOSITION   TO 
THE  JUGOSLAV  IDEA. 

Austria-Hungary  has  vainly  pitted  all  her 
strenght  against  the  Jugoslav  idea.  By  every 
means  in  her  power  she  has  tried  to  compro- 
mise, to  defame,  and  to  crush  it.  To  this  end  she 
established  the  Dualism  in  the  Monachy,  par- 
celled out  the  Jugoslavs  in  detached  provinces, 
mutilated  the  kingdom  of  Croatia,  and  sought 
to  germanize  the  Slovenes  and  to  magyarize 
the  Croats.  To  this  end  Bosnia-Herzegovina 
was  first  occupied  and  finally  annexed.  To 
this  end  innumerable  political  charges  were 
brought  against  the  Jugoslav  and  they  were 
subjected  to  endless  persecutions.  To  this  end 
she  encouraged  mutual  jealousies  and  conflicts 
between  the  Slav  states  in  the  Balkans,  and 
finally,  by  threatening  the  soverign  rights  of 
Serbia,  Austria  unchained  the  present  war. 

For,  in  her  subservience  to  German  Im- 
perialism, Austria  thought  by  this  war  to 
crush  Jugoslavdom,  the  great  obstacle  in  the 
path  of  Germany  and  herself  towards  the  East. 
She  provoked  the  war,  because  she  believed 
that  the  Jugoslav  question  could  no  longer  be 
solved  by  partial  or  palliative  measures,  and 
she  flung  herself  upon  Serbia  to  absorb  her, 
and  with  her  the  Jugoslavs.  But  when  Austria, 


22 


ITHB   SOUTHERN   SLAV'S   APPEAL 


as  Germany's  vassal  state  and  pioneer,  en- 
countered the  national  resistance  of  Serbia,  the 
Powers  of  the  Triple  Entente  rose  on  behalf 
of  the  smaller  nation.  In  this  way  the  Jugo- 
slav question  became  a  European  problem,  and 
it  is  of  paramount  importance  to  Europe  that 
it  should  be  fully  and  finally  solved;  only  a 
complete  solution  will  ensure  the  results  for 
which  the  Triple  Entente  has  gone  to  war. 

THE  JUGOSLAV  IDEA. 

Our  nation,  which  has  suffered  so  cruelly 
and  been  so  often  deceived,  is  determined  that 
its  fate  shall  be  decided  once  and  for  all,  even 
at  the  uttermost  cost.  Our  unnatural  existence 
and  constant  sufferings  must  be  ended ;  we  de- 
sire peace  and  peaceful  development.  We  hold 
that  we  have  a  right  to  be  something  more 
than  a  subject  for  intrigues  and  a  pawn  on 
the  chess-board  of  foreign  interests.  Neither 
will  we  continue  to  bring  slaughter  and  ruin 
upon  each  other  at  the  bidding  of  strangers. 
The  Jugoslav  people,  known  in  history 
as  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes,  are  all  mem- 
bers of  one  and  the  same  nation,  with  all  the 
necessary  conditions  for  the  formation  of  an 
independent  national  state,  and  they  have 
every  ethnographical  and  historical  right  to 
the  territory  which  they  inhabit  and  in  which 
they  form  a  compact  population. 

INTERDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  JUGOSLAV  LANDS 

All  these  lands  form  an  ethnical  unit ;  they 
are  geographically  contiguous,  and  economi- 
cally interdependent. 

Serbia  and  Montenegro  with  Bosnia-Her- 
cegovina  cannot  attain  their  normal  develop- 
ment without  the  possession  of  Dalmatia ;  de- 
tached from  its  hinterland  the  Dalmation  coast 
would  be  valueless  for  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion, and  the  safety  of  Dalmatia  would  be  per- 
manently jeopardized,  were  she  deprived  of 
her  achipelago.  One  reason  why  Austria-Hun- 
gary occupied  and  annexed  Bosnia-Hercegovi- 
na  was  that  she  already  possessed  Dalmatia. 
Dalmatia  and  the  Dalmatian  archipelago  must 
properly  belong  to  the  owner  of  Bosnia-Herce- 
govina. 

Moreover,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Dalmatia 
formed  an  integrant  part  of  the  Jugoslav 
states — whether  Serbian  or  Croatian — which 
arose  during  the  course  of  history,  and  when 
she  was  incorporated  with  Austria,  Dalmatia 
herself  evinced  the  tendency  towards  union 
with  other  Jugoslav  countries.  As  the  utmost 
that  could  at  that  time  be  aspired  to,  she  asked 
to  be  united  with  Croatia-Slavonia,  and  the 


Diets  of  Zadar  (Zara)  and  Zagreb  (Agram) 
have  never  ceased  to  demand  such  a  union. 
Obviously  these  demands  were  prompted  by  a 
strong  desire  on  the  part  of  our  countrymen  in 
Dalmatia  to  be  united  with  the  rest  of  the 
Jugoslav  race. 

For  centuries  Croatia-Slavonia  sturdily 
defended  her  autonomy  against  Germanism 
and  Austrian  centralization  no  less  than  a- 
gainst  Magyarization.  In  a  union  of  all  Ju- 
goslav countries  Croatia  would  at  once  take 
her  proper  place ;  first  of  all  for  ethnical  rea- 
sons; secondly,  because  her  national  and  po- 
litical renascence  was  accomplished  under  the 
banner  of  a  great  Jugoslav  movement,  and  be- 
cause the  Croatian  Diets  have  always  demand- 
ed Jugoslav  unity,  territorial  integrity,  and 
political  independence ;  and  finally  because  her 
three  great  waterways,  the  Sava,  the  Drava, 
and  the  Danube,  as  well  as  the  railway  that 
traverses  the  country  and  connects  Belgrade 
with  Rieke  (Fiume)  render  Croatia  the  na- 
tural intermediat  link  between  eastern  and 
western  Jugoslavia. 

Rieka  (Fiume)  is  the  only  natural  and 
praticable  seaport  for  Croatia-Slavonia,  and 
at  present  also  for  Serbia.  The  right  of  Croa- 
tia to  Fiume  as  an  incontestable  part  of  her 
territory  was  never  called  into  question  before 
the  falsification  of  §  66  of  the  Croato-Hunga- 
rian  Agreement  in  1868.  As  a  result  of  this 
crime  Hungary  deprived  Croatia  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  town  and  seaport  of  Rieka, 
just  as  she  had  in  1861  deprived  her  of  the 
administration  of  the  Medjumurje,a  purely 
Croatian  district  between  the  Drava  and  its 
affluent  the  Mur.  As  a  port  Rieka  is  valueless 
without  its  hinterland,  and  this  again  cannot 
thrive  without  its  natural  seaport.  A  Jugoslav 
Rieka  is  of  vital  necessity  to  Croatia-Slavonia, 
Serbia,  and  a  large  part  of  Istria  and  Carniola. 

The  possession  of  the  Quarnero  (Kvarner) 
Islands  and  of  Eastern  Istria  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  Rieka,  just  as  Western  Istria 
is  bound  up  with  Trst  (Trieste),  the  only  sea- 
port of  the  Slovene  hinterland. 

In  the  hands  of  the  Jugoslavs,  Trst 
(Trieste)  would  prove,  economically  speaking, 
an  important  stronghold  against  German  eco- 
nomic pressure,  and  nobody  would  stand  to 
benefit  more  by  this  than  France  and  England. 

If  the  Jugoslav  lands  were  deprived  of 
Trieste  and  their  communication  with  the  sea, 
they  could  no  longer  be  sufficiently  strong  to 
resist  German  southward  pressure,  which  is 
continually  encroaching  on  the  Slovene  territo- 


THE   SOtfttfE'JtN   SLAV'S  APPfiAL 


23 


ry  in  Carinthia  and  Styria.  Only  the  posses- 
sion of  Trieste,  Carinthia,  and  Southern  Styria 
can  enable  the  Slovenes  to  block  the  advance 
of  Germanism  towards  the  Mediterranean,  and 
so  accomplish  their  mission  as  the  Alpine 
Guard  of  the  Adriatic  and  Jugoslavdom.  In 
this  capacity  they  would  serve  the  interests  of 
all  the  opponents  of  Pan-Germanism,  and  en- 
sure the  security  of  the  Mediterranean  Powers 
as  well  as  the  national  existence  of  all  the  Ju- 
goslav countries. 

There  are  in  Hungary  102,000  Slovenes 
living  between  the  Mur  and  the  Raab,  and 
800,000  Serbo-Croats  north  of  the  Drava  and 
Danube.  This  entire  population,  which  con- 
sists largely  of  wealthy  landholders,  can  only 
be  saved  from  forcible  Magyarization  by  union 
with  the  brothers  of  their  race.  If  they  be 
permitted  to  remain  Jugoslavs,  the  fertile 
plains  of  the  Backa  and  Banat  will  be  pre- 
served to  the  nation  and  furnish  the  other 
Jugoslav  countries  with  the  granary  they  re- 
quire. 

Any  partition  of  the  national  territory, 
and  above  all  things  the  cession  of  any  part 
whatsoever  to  a  foreign  Power,  would  not 
only  seriously  impede  the  development  of  Ju- 
goslav unity  and  violate  the  principle  of  na- 
tionnality,  but  prove  a  mere  repetition  of  the 
Austrian  system,  and  a  fresh  source  of  endless 
conflicts  and  collisions. 

THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    JUGOSLAV    FUTURE 
POLICY. 

All  questions  as  to  the  modes  and  forme 
of  the  grouping  of  our  nation  in  the  future 
state  must  be  considered  as  internal  questions, 
to  be  settled  in  accordance  with  the  free  de- 
cision of  the  whole  nation. 

After  centuries  of  struggle  for  existence 
our  nation  feels  the  need  of  peace,  and  there- 


fore earnestly  desires  to  live  in  perfect  accord 
with  its  neighbors.  United  in  one  State,  it 
will  posess  all  the  necessary  attributes  to  be- 
come an  element  of  order  and  progress  in 
South-eastern  Europe.  Neither  numbers  nor 
aggressive  propensities  will  render  the  Jugo- 
slavs a  danger  to  their  neighbors,  more 
especially  because  the  great  problems  of  their 
own  organization  will  fully  occupy  thier  ener- 
gies. 

Tolerant  in  religious  matters  both  by 
nature  and  because  of  its  democratic  senti- 
ments, our  nation,  once  free  and  united,  will 
see  no  cause  to  persecute  other  creeds  and 
nationalities,  more  especially  as  we  ourselves 
do  not  profess  the  same  creed,  a  circumstance 
which  neither  impedes  nor  prevents  the  unity 
of  our  sentiments  and  interests.  Our  nation 
therefore  contains  in  itself  the  necessary 
guarantees  for  religious  liberty. 

Our  nation  inhabits  the  entire  eastern 
coast  of  the  Adriatic.  In  this  district  we  are 
above  all  things  anxious  to  live  in  complete 
economic  co-operation  with  all  our  neighbours 
by  land  and  by  sea,  and  to  utilize  our  natural 
talents,  not  in  warfare,  but  for  the  further- 
ance of  peace,  by  placing  them  at  the  service 
of  civilization  and  commerce.  It  will  be  to 
our  own  economic  advantage  to  throw  open 
our  ports  to  commerce  and  to  guarantee  the 
freedom  of  the  routes  of  communication  be- 
tween those  ports,  and  of  all  traffic  with  our 
hinterland. 

Thus  the  interests  of  our  nation  coincide 
entirely  with  those  of  peace  and  universal  civi- 
lization, and  especially  with  the  interests 
which  inspired  the  great  Powers  of  the  Triple 
Entente,  when  they  took  up  arms  against  a 
brutal  Imperialism,  that  perpetul  menace  to 
peace. 


THE  STATISTIC  NOTES  IN  SUPPORT  OF  THE 
SOUTHERN  SLAVS  UNITY 


The  Adriatic  Barrier  Against  Germanism 

The  Slovenes  are  the  natural  barrier 
against  the  German  thrust  towards  the 
Adriatic.  This  deserving,  progressive,  and 
energetic  people,  which  is  a  pure  branch  of 
the  Jugoslav  race,  effectively  closes  the  way 
to  Germanism  on  the  southern  German  ethno- 
graphic boundary  in  Carinthia  and  Styria — 
that  is  to  say,  upon  a  frontier  line  of  120  km.  as 
the  crow  flies.  In  the  event  of  the  Slovenes  in 
Carnia  and  the  littoral  not  being  liberated  and 
united  with  the  rest  of  their  Jugoslav  brothers, 
or  the  Slovenes  in  Carinthia  and  Styria  being 
sacrificed  to  the  German  Austrians,  the 
Germans  could  very  soon  and  with  ease  advance 
by  the  Drava-Mura  line  (Celovac  [Klagenfurt] 
and  Maribor  [Marburg])  to  the  Carso,  to  the 
Adriatic,  to  Trst,  and  Rieka,  and  a  progressive 
nation  of  1,400,000  souls  would  certainly 
perish. 

Importance  of  the  Slovenes 

The  Slovenes  are  the  most  western  of  the 
Jugoslavs,  and  they  are  Catholics  by  religion. 
Their  mountainous  country  lies  in  the  direct 
line  between  Germany  and  the  Adriatic,  and 
tli is  is  why  the  possession  of  their  territory  is 
of  such  supreme  importance  for  the  defence 
of  the  Mediterranean  against  Germanization. 
But  the  Slovenes  can  hold  their  own  and 
accomplish  their  task  if  they  are  united  with 
their  Jugoslav  brothers  in  one  State  of  suf- 
ficient strength.  There  are  in  all  1,400,000 
Slovenes.  Italy  is  demanding  420,000,  and  if 
the  110,000  Slovens  in  Hungary,  and  another 
120,000  in  Carnia  are  sacrificed  to  other  aspira- 
tions, a  total  of  610,000  Slovens,  or  almost  the 
half  of  the  nation,  would  remain  under  foreign 
rule.  In  the  case  of  the  further  cession  of 
Southern  Styria  with  410,000  Slovene  inha- 
bitants, only  380,000  Slovenes  would  remain  to 
profit  by  liberation  and  union  with  their 
brothers.  The  application  of  such  a  policy  of 
dismemberment  to  a  small  nation  in  an  import- 
ant geographical  position  would  mean  its 
inevitable  destruction. 


Incomplete  Liberation  and  Unification  of  the 
Jugoslavs 

There  are  thirteen  million  Jugoslavs  living 
in  South-Eastern  Europe;  five  million  are  free 
and  eight  million,  roughly  speaking,  two-thirds 
of  the  nation,  living  in  Austria-Hungary,  are 
still  awaiting  liberation.  If  Italy  is  permitted 
to  realize  her  aspirations,  though  all  the  rest 
of  the  Jugoslavs  were  liberated,  900,000  would 
still  remain  under  foreign  rule ;  if,  futhermore, 
the  Jugoslavs  living  north  of  the  Drave  and 
the  Danube  ar  assigned  to  Hungary  and  to 
Rumania  another  900,000,  or  a  total  of 
1,800,000,  would  remain  unliberated. 

Finally,  by  allowing  Austria  to  retain 
Southern  Carnia  and  Southern  Styria  530,000 
Jugoslavs  would  still  be  Austrian  subjects  and 
2,820,000  in  all  would  remain  under  foreign  and 
hostile  rule.  By  the  deduction  of  Carniola 
with  420,000  Jugoslav  inhabitants  from  the 
future  free  state  of  Jugoslavia,  the  number 
would  rise  to  2,820,000,  and  if  an  analogous 
process  is  applied  to  Croatia-Slavonia  and  her 
population  of  2,820,000  the  total  number  of  un- 
liberated Jugoslavs  would  amount  to  5,130,000, 
i.  e.,  it  would  be  equal  to  the  added  populations 
of  Serbia  and  Montenegro  to-day.  If  Italian 
aspirations  be  satisfied,  Croatia,  Slavonia,  and 
the  Slovene  countries  separately  dealt  with, 
and  the  Jugoslavs  in  Hungary  sacrificed,  Serbia 
and  Montenegro  would  only  gain  a  population 
of  2,185,000  by  this  war.  Their  total  popula- 
tion would  amount  to  little  more  than  six 
million,  and  six  million  Jugoslavs  would  remain 
unliberated.  Needless  to  say,  a  solution  of  this 
kind  would  simply  leave  the  Jugoslav  problem 
unsolved. 

Statistics  of  the  Eastern  Adriatic  Littoral 

There  are  450,000  Jugoslavs  living  in  the 
Austrian  littoral  (Gorizia-Gradiska,  Trieste, 
and  Istria)  and  only  350,000  Italians.  In  Dal- 
matia  there  are  610,000  Jugoslavs  and  only 
18,000  Italians.  If  the  whole  of  the  Austrian 
littoral,  part  of  Carniola,  the  mainland  of 


THE   SOUTHERN 

Dalmatia  north  of  Trogir,  and  all  the  islands 
north  of  Mljet  (with  the  exception  of  Brae), 
are  assigned  to  Italy,  350,000  Italians  would 
be  liberated  and  united  with  Italy,  whereas 
900,000  Jugoslavs  would  remain  under  a 
foreign  yoke.  In  Dalraatia  350,000  Jugoslavs 
would  be  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  15,000 
Italians,  and  only  the  278,000  Jugoslavs  in 
Southern  Dalmatia  would  be  liberated.  The 
Jugoslav  population  of  the  Dalmatian  Islands 
amounts  to  100,000  and  the  Italian  only  1,500 
souls.  Gorizia-Gradiska,  with  the  exception 
of  the  valley  of  the  Friuli,  which  the  Jugoslavs 
are  not  demanding,  has  a  Jugoslav  population 
of  150,000  and  an  Italian  population  of  28,000. 
Central  and  Eastern  Istria  with  the  Quarnero 
Islands  has  a  Jugoslav  population  of  120,000 
and  an  Italian  population  of  only  16,000.  In 
Southern  Carnia  there  is  not  one  single  Italian 
inhabitant  among  a  population  of  110,000  Jugo- 
slavs. Only  Western  Istria,  Trieste,  and  the 
valley  of  Friuli  (Gradiska)  can  be  accounted 
districts  with  a  mixed  population,  and  even 
there  the  proportion  is  260,000  Italian  to 
272,000  Jugoslavs,  so  that  even  in  these  dis- 
tricts the  Jugoslavs  are  slightly  in  the  majority. 

Just  Balance  of  Power 
The  unification  of  all  the  Southern  Slavs 
would  by  no  means  interfere  with  a  just  balance 
of  power  in  South-Eastern  Europe,  but  would 
be  in  proportion  to  the  natural  balance  of 
power  between  the  nations  most  concerned. 
The  Southern  Slav  State  (Jugoslavia)  would 
have  a  population  of  about  twelve  million  inha- 
bitants. Hungary,  reduced  to  her  natural 
borders,  would  also  have  about  twelve  million ; 
Roumania,  enlarged  and  united,  also  twelve 
million ;  and  Bulgaria  and  Greece  between 
them  about  fourteen  million  inhabitants.  The 
Jugoslav  State  would  certainly  not  pursue  an 
expansive  policy,  as  the  territory  inhabited  by 
the  Jugoslavs  amply  suffices  for  the  population, 
whose  density  amounts  to  fifty  persons  to  one 
square  km.  In  Roumania  the  density  of  the 
population  amounts  to  53  persons  to  one  square 
km. ;  in  Bulgaria  it  amounts  to  41.6,  in  Greece 
to  41,  in  Hungary  to  64,  in  Austria  to  95,  and 
in  Italy  to  113  persons  to  one  square  km. 
Finally,  the  birth-rate  among  the  Jugoslavs 
cannot  be  expected  to  increase  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  constitute  a  danger  to  their 
neighbours.  During  recent  years  the  propor- 
tionate increase  has  amounted  to  1.6  per  cent. 


SLAV'S   APPEAL  25 

annually,  whereas  among  the  Bulgars  the  in- 
crease amounts  to  1.5  per  cent.,  and  among  the 
Roumanians  to  1.9  per  cent. 

Orthodox  and  Catholic  Jugoslavs 

The  confessional  differences  among  the 
Jugoslavs,  which  are  in  many  quarters  looked 
upon  as  an  obstacle  to  the  unification  of  the 
whole  Jugoslav  race,  do  not  really  present  any 
obstacle  at  all  to  Jugoslav  unity,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  a  strong  argument  against  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  Jugoslav  territory,  as  it  is 
impossible  to  draw  a  just  boundary  between 
Orthodox  and  Catholic  religions.  If  Serbia 
acquires  Bosnia-Herzegovina,  Southern  Dalma- 
tia, Syrmia,  and  part  of  Slavonia,  more  than 
one  million  Serbian  Orthodox  Jugoslavs  would 
still  remain  in  the  unliberated  and  non-incor- 
porated Western  districts,  viz.,  437,000  in 
Croatia,  76,000  in  Dalmatia,  and  about  500,000 
in  Hungary;  whereas  the  enlarged  kingdom  of 
Serbia  wuold  only  have  acquired  1,064,000 
Orthodox,  and  1,600,000  non-Orthodox  subjects, 
viz.,  279,000  Catholics  in  Southern  Dalmatia, 
385,000  Catholics  and  612,000  Moslems  in 
Bosnia-Herzegovina,  208,900  Catholic  Jugoslavs 
in  Syrmia  and  Slavonia,  and  110,750  non-Slavs 
of  different  confessions.  Niether  Serbia  nor 
the  Western  Jugoslavs  could  consent  to  such 
dismemberment  of  the  race.  It  would  be 
strenuously  opposed  equally  by  the  one  million 
sacrificed  Orthodox  Jugoslavs,  by  the  1,750,000 
non-Orthodox  Jugoslavs  given  to  Serbia  and 
cut  off  from  their  brothers,  and  by  the  4,200,000 
unliberated  and  non-incorporated  Catholic 
Jugoslavs  among  the  Croats  and  Slovenes. 
The  Jugoslavs  refuse  to  be  crushed  and 
divided;  they  must,  and  will,  be  liberated  as  a 
whole  and  united  in  one  single  State  in  which 
they  can  consolidate  themselves  into  a  national 
political  unit. 

JUGOSLAV    APPEAL    TO    BULGARIA    IN 
OCTOBER  1915. 

Before  the  Bulgarian  entrance  into  the 
war,  The  Southern  Slav  Committe  in  London 
sent  (in  Oct.  1915.)  the  following  message  to 
the  President  of  the  Bulgarian  Sobranje 
(Parliament)  in  Sofia: 

"The  Southern  Slav  Committee  in  London, 
representing  the  Southern  Slav  countries  in- 
habited by  Croats,  Slovenes,  and  Serbs  still 


28  f Hfl 

under  the  Austro-Hungarian  domination,  sends 
the  following  brotherly  message  to  the  Bul- 
garian nation  at  the  moment  of  its  coming  to 
the  fateful  parting  of  the  ways : 

' '  This  committee,  which  is  working  for  the 
liberation  of  the  whole  Serbo-Creato-Slovene 
race  from  the  hateful  Germano-Magyar  oppres- 
sion and  for  the  realization  of  national  and 
political  unity  with  Serbia  and  Montenegro, 
after  centuries  of  suffering  and  longing,  refuses 
to  credit  the  gloomy  forecast  circulated  in 
Europe  in  connection  with  the  Bulgarian 
mobilization. 

"In  the  name  of  the  genius  of  the  noble 
Slav  race,  in  the  name  of  the  Slav  blood  which 
has  been  shed  like  water  in  the  never-ending 
struggle  against  Turkish  aggression,  we  protest 
emphatically  in  the  defence  of  the  Bulgarian 
nation  against  the  German  insinuation  that  the 
Bulgarian  army  would  attack  Serbia  in  the 
hour  of  her  martyrdom  and  provoke  a  fratrici- 
dal war. 

"It  is  unthinkable  that  Bulgaria  shall 
stretch  her  hand  across  Serbia  to  help  the 
Germano-Magyar  forces  to  join  the  Turkish 
armies  and  thereby  assist  in  the  subjection  of 
Bulgaria,  of  the  whole  of  Slavdom,  and  the 
civilization  of  the  human  race,  to  the  most 
brutal  tyranny  ever  known  in  the  world's 
history. 

"Faithful  to  the  laws  of  nature  and  civili- 
zation, we  are  emphatically  on  the  side  of  the 
Slav  warriors  of  Montenegro,  Serbia,  and 
Russia,  and  their  gallant  allies,  and  we  heartily 
hope  and  trust  that  Bulgaria  will  also  take  her 
rightful  place  on  that  side." 

At  the  same  time  the  representatives  of 
the  Croats  and  Slovenes  in  Austro-Hungary, 
who  have  found  a  refuge  abroad  and  are  now 
conferring  in  Geneva,  have  sent  the  following 
telegram  to  the  Bulgarian  Goverment: — 

"We,  the  representatives  of  the  Croats 
and  Slovenes,  who  have  taken  refuge  abroad  in 
order  to  represent  the  interests  of  our  country- 
men, and  who  in  these  days  of  trial  firmly 
believe  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  cause  of 
liberty  over  terrorism,  and  consequently  in  the 
deliverance  of  our  people  from  the  th  eAustro- 
Hungarian  yoke,  have  watched  the  recent  turn 
of  events  in  Bulgaria  with  unfeigned  amaze- 
ment. We,  who  have  equally  deplored  both 
Slivnica  and  Bregalnica,  and  have  seen  the 
hand  of  Germany  in  each  of  these  tragedies, 
do  not  believe  that  the  national  soul  of  either 


SLAV'S  APPB5AL 

Serbia  or  Bulgaria  has  been  tainted  by  these 
unfortunate  events ;  and  with  profound  horror 
and  indignation  we  refuse  to  believe  that  the 
Bulgarian  people  will  stoop  to  play  the  part 
of  Turko-German  janissaries,  and  by  this  act 
withdraw  from  our  fraternity." 

THE  JUGOSLAV  COMMITTEE  AND 
M.  VENIZELOS 

Through  the  Royal  Greek  Legation  the 
Jugoslav  Committee  sent  the  following  tele- 
gram to  M.  Venizelos,  the  Greek  Premier,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  resumption  of  office  in 
September,  1915:— 

"In  the  name  of  the  Serbs,  Croats,  and 
Slovenes  in  Austria-Hungary,  who  desire  to  be 
freed  from  the  Austrian  yoke  and  united  with 
their  brothers  in  Serbia  and  Montenegro,  the 
Jugoslav  Committee  offer  their  sincerest  con- 
gratulations to  Your  Excellency,  as  the  leader 
of  modern  and  Christian  Hellas,  the  author  of 
the  Balkan  League,  the  Graeco-Serbian  Alliance, 
and  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest;  they  trust  that 
your  return  to  power  will  greatly  facilitate  the 
struggle  of  the  Balkan  nations  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  principle  'the  Balkans  for  the 
Balkan  nations',  and  that  your  resumption  of 
office  will  also  prove  a  guarantee  for  the 
continued  alliance  and  sincere  and  lasting 
friendship  between  the  noble  Hellenic  nation 
and  the  Serbians  who  are  striving  for  union 
with  their  brothers,  the  Croats  and  Slovenes. — 
For  the  Jugoslav  Committee, 

"The  President,  Dr.  Ante  Trumbic." 

The  Greek  Minister  in  London  most 
cordially  received  the  President  of  the  Com- 
mittee and  showed  the  greatest  interest  in  the 
cause  represented  by  the  Jugoslav  Committee. 

THE  JUGOSLAV  COMMITTEE  TO  SERBIA 
IN  OCTOBER  1915. 

On  the  12th  day  of  October  1915,  the  Jugo- 
slav Committee  sent  the  following  telegram  to 
the  Serbian  Goyerment  at  Nish : — 

"On  this  occasion  of  the  latest  offensive 
of  the  German  and  Austro-Hungarian  forces 
against  Serbia,  the  Jugoslav  Committee  desires 
again  to  emphisize  its  full  and  complete  soli- 
darity with  the  Serbian  nation  in  this  terrible 
hour,  and  to  express  its  firm  belief  that  in  this 
struggle  Serbia  will  once  more  astonish  the 
world  by  her  glorious  and  unequalled  valour. 
After  the  last  defeats  suffered  by  the  superior 


THE  SOUf HEftN  SLAV'S  APPEAL 


Austro-Hungarian  armies  in  Serbia,  both  the 
Central  Powers  are  returning  together  to  crush 
and  trample  down  little  Serbia.  But  Provi- 
dence, who  guards  both  great  and  small,  will 
again  endow  the  Serbian  army  with  super- 
human strength  to  repeat  the  history  of  David 
and  Goliath.  To  the  Serbian  Army,  as  the  Ju- 
goslav David,  we  send  our  hearts,  our  hopes, 
and  our  faith.  At  the  same  time  the  Jugoslav 
Committee  appeals  to  all  Croats,  Serbs,  and 
Slovenes  from  the  unredeemed  countries  in 
Austria-Hungary,  and  at  present  living  in  Ser- 
bia, to  place  themselves,  at  this  most  critical 
moment  in  the  history  of  Serbia  and  all  the 
Jugoslavs,  unreservedly  and  without  hesitation 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Royal  Serbian  Govern- 
ment, to  aid  Serbia  in  her  struggle  for  life. 

"Dr.  Ante  Trumbic,  President." 

At  the  same  time  the  Committee  sent 
urgent  appeals  to  all  Jugoslav  emigrants  out- 
side Serbia  to  give  their  unconditional  help  to 
their  brothers  and  to  offer  their  very  lives  in 
this  struggle  for  the  salvation  of  the  only  in- 
dependent, but  now  endangered,  Jugoslav 
country,  for  the  future  of  the  Jugoslav  race, 
and  that  the  Balkans  and  the  East  may  be 
saved  from  the  Germane-Turkish  terror. 

A  DECLARATION  OF  THE  JUGOSLAV 
COMMITTEE  IN  FEBRUARY  1916. 

The  Jugoslav  Committe,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Dr.  A.  Trumbic,  met  in  Paris  for  a 
plenary  sitting,  lasting  from  Feb.  16  to  Feb.  24. 
All  the  members  of  the  Committee  were  pre- 
sent, with  the  exception  of  those  who  were 
absent  on  missions,  to  the  Southern  Slav  colo- 
nies in  both  Americas. 

The  Committee  considered  the  general 
situation  from  the  Jugoslav  point  of  view  in  all 
its  details,  with  due  regard  to  the  events  that 
have  occured  since  the  Committee  was  con- 
stituted in  May,  1915.  Reviewing  the  results  of 
its  propagandist  activity  in  friendly  countries, 
it  was  able  to  record  a  notable  success.  Both 
the  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  the  Jugo- 
slav problem  have  made  undeniable  progress. 

The  Committee,  having  met  in  a  plenary 
sitting  for  the  first  time  since  the  last  invasion 
of  Serbia  and  Montenegro,  testified  its  soli- 
darity with  the  sufferings,  aspirations,  and 
hopes  of  all  the  Jugoslavs — Serbs,  Croats,  and 
Slovenes — as  well  as  its  fixed  determination  to 
fight  to  the  end,  side  by  side  with  the  Allies, 


for  the  liberation  of  the  entire  Jugoslav  nation 
from  the  foreign  yoke  under  which  it  is  for  the 
time  being  united. 

The  Committee  has  with  satisfaction  and 
admiration  noted  the  generous  action  of  France 
and  her  Allies  in  rendering  efficient  help  to  the 
Serbo-Montenegrin  army  in  its  painful  retreat 
before  the  overwhelming  superiority  of  the 
enemy,  by  transporting  it  to  a  place  of  safety, 
and  reorganizing  it  for  fresh  heroic  exploits. 
For  this  the  whole  Jugoslav  nation  will  be 
eternally  grateful  to  her. 

As  the  representatives  and  mouthpiece  of 
the  sentiments  and  aspirations  of  the  Jugoslavs 
in  Austria-Hungary  and  in  America,  the  Com- 
mittee protests  its  unflinching  adherence  to  the 
cause  of  the  Allies,  and  its  endeavour,  by  every 
means  in  its  power,  to  further  the  common 
cause  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  the  Jugoslav 
colonies  in  America. 

In  its  absolute  confidence  in  the  final 
victory  of  the  Allies  the  Committee  has  re- 
corded the  resolution  that  the  future  peace 
shall  not  be  confined  to  a  mere  restoration  of 
Serbia.  For  her  superhuman  efforts  and  sa- 
crifices adequate  compensation  is  impossible. 
But  on  the  basis  of  the  principles  of  nation- 
ality, right,  and  justice,  which  the  Allies  have 
solemnly  inscribed  on  their  standards,  the 
peace  of  the  future  must  solve  the  Jugoslav 
problem  in  its  entire  extent. 

By  uniting  and  unifying  the  Jugoslav 
nation,  which  has  for  centuries  in  the  past 
maintained  a  successful  struggle  on  all  fronts 
against  the  Germans,  Magyars,  and  Turks,  in 
one  single  State,  the  peace  of  the  future  will 
raise  an  impenetrable  rampart  against  any  new 
attempts  at  expansion  towards  the  south-east 
on  the  part  of  the  Teutons ;  it  will  provide  the 
necessary  conditions  for  its  durability,  and 
thereby  ensure  peace  and  brotherly  good  fel- 
lowship between  the  nations  of  Europe. 

The  Committee  further  decided  upon  a 
whole  series  of  important  measures  with  a  view 
to  collaborating  efficiently  in  the  common 
cause  of  the  Allies.  It  also  discussed  suitable 
means  of  increasing  the  work  of  propaganda. 

Finally,  it  sent,  by  telegram,  a  message  ex- 
pressing its  profound  sympathy  with  the  Ser- 
bian Goverment,  and  its  respect  and  admi- 
ration for  the  heroic  Prince  Regent  of  Serbia. 


28  THE   SOtJf  HERN 

THE  MANDATE  AND  THE  DUTY  OF  THE 
JUGOSLAV  COMMITTEE. 

"The  Southern  Slav  Bulletin,  No.  19,  (Au- 
gust 14.  1916)  has  published  following  decla- 
ration : 

' '  We  are  sure  that  students  of  our  question 
and  of  the  national,  polical,  and  etnogra- 
phical  conditions  in  our  countries  must,  if 
right  and  justice  are  to  triumph,  in  the  end 
be  wholy  converted  to  the  great  necessity 
of  settling  the  Jugoslav  question  in  full 
accordance  with  the  programme  issued  by 
the  Jugoslav  Committee  in  London.  It 
is  the  programme  of  our  whole  nation, 
of  our  whole  race,  and  therefore  in  no 
sense  a  political  but  a  national  programme. 
The  Jugoslav  Committee  is  neither  a  political 
party  nor  the  author  of  this  programme.  At 
home  and  before  the  war  its  members  belonged 
to  different  political  parties,  and  as  regards 
domestic  political  matters  they  perhaps  still 
dift'fer,  but  out  here  they  are  united  as  a  body 
which  represents  the  whole  nation,  viz.,  all  the 
Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes  dwelling  in  Croa- 
tia, Slavonia,  Dalmatia,  Istria,  Bosnia-Herze- 
govinia,  Carniola,  Carinthia,  Goricka  (Gori- 
zia),  Trieste,  Styria,  Gradiska,  Prekomurje, 
Baranja,  the  Banat,  and  Backa;  and,  further- 
more, those  Jugoslavs  who  live  as  emigrants  in 
the  United  States,  in  South  America,  and  the 
British  Overseas  Dominions.  Being  the  only 
body  which  is  at  present  in  a  position  to  voice 
the  unanimous  desire  of  all  the  Jugoslavs,  the 
Jugoslav  Committee  is  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses the  nation  itself,  and  the  Jugoslav  nation 
is  the  author  of  the  Jugoslav  programme.  We 
must  put  it  in  this  way  so  as  to  make  it  clear 
to  our  many  friends,  as  well  as  to  our  adver- 
saries, that  the  Jugoslav  Committee  has  the 
mandate  and  the  sacred  duty  only  to  propa- 
gate, to  the  limit  of  its  extent  and  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  the  Jugoslav  programme,  but  no 
power  whatsoever  to  negotiate  concerning  the 
resolution  of  the  nation,  or  to  make  any  con- 
cessions as  regards  the  Jugoslav  aims.  Eight 
and  justice  can  be  overthrown,  but  they  are 
not  subjects  for  negotiation. 

Our  programme  remains  as  it  was  in  the 
beginning,  and  as  it  originated  in  the  martyred 
soul  of  our  whole  nation,  which  has  for  cen- 
turies struggled  for  liberation  and  unity.  To 
liberate  one  part  of  our  nation  and  enslave 
another  afresh  for  "strategic  reasons"  or  any 


SLAV'S   APPEAL 

other  considerations,  even  if  such  a  part  con- 
sists merely  of  a  "negligible  quantity"  in  a  di- 
plomatic sense,  offers  no  solution  of  the  Jugo- 
slav question  at  all.  A  single  one  of  our  bro- 
thers enslaved  in  his  ancestral  territory  means 
that  there  can  be  no  freedom  for  all  the  rest 
until  he  also  is  freed. 

History  must  record  this  war  as  a  war  of 
Justice  against  oppression,  as  the  Holy  War  of 
nations  against  castes,  as  the  sum  of  human 
brotherhood  united  in  overthrowing  the  mon- 
ster Greed.  Love,  peace,  and  mutual  confidence 
must  be  issues  of  this  war.  Humanity  and  not 
Imperialism  must  be  the  conqueror.  The  flag 
of  freedom  must  adorn  every  palace,  every  cot- 
tage, every  hut  in  the  new  Europe.  If  that 
cannot  be  achieved,  then,  of  course,  this  war  is 
only  a  preparation  for  new  struggles,  a  new 
troubling  of  the  waters  in  which  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  and  Habsburgs  will  find  their  richest 
fishing  ground. 

The  Jugoslavs  have  never  asked,  and  do 
not  ask  anything  but  the  just  recognition  of 
their  indisputable  rights.  They  desire  nothing 
more  than  to  live  in  peace  on  their  ancestral 
territory,  to  develop  in  freedom,  and  to  main- 
tain absolutely  sicere  relations  of  friendship 
with  their  neighbours.  They  never  demanded 
a  single  square  inch  of  territory  which  rightly 
belongs  to  nayone  else,  and  they  call  only 
those  countries  their  fatherland  which  have 
been  theirs  from  the  days  they  first  settled 
there,  the  lands  where  they  made  their  history, 
where  their  language  is  spoken,  and  their  soul 
linked  with  the  soil  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years.  Their  cry  for  freedom  has  risen  higher 
than  ever,  even  in  the  present  time,  because 
they  are  convinced  that  the  Allies  are  warring 
and  shedding  their  blood  for  all  the  oppressed, 
and  not  only  for  those  who  are  excluded  from 
"strategical  considerations".  The  future  of 
nations  must  be  founded  on  confidence  and 
friendship,  and  not  on  strategical  frontiers.  If 
our  resolution  to  dwell  in  amity  and  confi- 
dence is  reciprocated  by  our  neighbours,  then 
our  mutual  honesty  will  be  our  best  frontier 
fortification.  But  only  malice  can  sugest  that 
the  Jugoslav — even  Serbia  proper — have  ever 
shown  symptons  of  aggression  or  a  desire  for 
expansion  beyond  their  own  ancestral  terri- 
tory. History  proves  that  they  never  sized 
upon  the  land  of  others,  but  on  the  contrary, 
that  they  were  constantly  robbed  of  their  own. 
But  these  ages  are  past  and  one  of  the  main 
pillars  of  the  future  peace  of  Europe  must 
be  a  complete  and  undivided  Jugoslavia." 


PART  III 


SERBIA  AND  THE  JUGO-SLAV  PROGRAMME. 


In  the  painful  days,  when  the  Austrian  ar- 
mies in  the  late  autumn  of  the  year  1914  raised 
Serbia,  the  Serbian  National  Skupstina  assem- 
bled at  Nis  and  formed  a  new  Serbian  Govern- 
ment from  the  representatives  of  all  political 
parties.  That  government,  through  the  Prime 
Minister  Pasic  made  on  the  24th  of  November 
(0.  S.)  the  following  declaration: 

"The  present  government  has  been  formed 
in  order  to  personify  the  unity  of  will,  forces 
and  purposes  of  our  land.  Convinced  of  the 
confidence  of  the  National  Skupstina  as  long 
as  it  places  all  its  forces  at  the  service  of  the 
great  cause  of  the  Serbian  state  and  the  Serbo- 
Croatian  and  Slovenian  race,  the  government 
considers  its  paramount  duty  to  bow  with  a 
boundless  respect  before  the  exalted  victims 
who  emmolated  themselves  bravely  and  wil- 
lingly on  the  altar  of  the  coutry. . . .  Convinced 
of  the  determination  of  the  entire  Serbian 
people  to  persevere  in  the  holy  struggle  for 
the  defense  of  its  hearth  and  of  its  liberty,  the 
Government  of  the  Kingdom  considers  it  its 
prime — and  indeed  in  these  fate-shaping  mo- 
ments — its  only  task  to  secure  a  successful  end 
of  this  great  struggle  which,  at  the  moments  of 
its  beginning  has  developed  into  a  war  for  the 
unification  of  all  our  un-liberated  brothers  Ser- 
bians, Croats  and  Slovenians.  The  brilliant 
success  which  will  have  to  crown  this  warfare 
will  redeem  opulently  the  bloody  sacrifices 
which  the  present  Serbian  generation  is 
enduring." 

By  that  declaration,  which  the  Skupstina 
has  unanimously  sanctioned,  Serbia  has  clearly 
defined  her  intentions  and  thereby  has  become 
before  Europe  the  representative  of  our  entire 
people. 

At  several  later  opportunities  declarations 
in  the  same  sense  have  been  made  to  the  public 
by  Premier  Pasic,  his  assistant  Mr.  Jovan  Jova- 
novic,  and  by  the  Prince  Regent  himself  in 
which  the  same  purpose  has  always  been  ac- 
centuated, viz.:  Liberation  and  unification  of 


the  Serbians,  Croats  and  Slovenians.  This  an- 
nuls all  the  suspicions  and  reproaches  that  Ser- 
bia strove  after  the  formation  of  a  "Greater 
Serbia"  in  which  the  Croats  and  the  Slovenians 
would  be  drowned.  At  the  moment  when  Italy 
demanded  our  littoral,  first  representatives  of 
the  Serbian  policy  as  well  as  representatives  of 
the  government  participated  in  the  great 
national  meeting  at  Nis,  at  which  has  been 
received  the  resolution  of  national  unity  of  the 
Serbians,  Croats  and  Slovenians  as  also  the  re- 
jection of  the  Italian  imperialistic  demands. 
The  Premier  Pasic  has  made  in  the  Serbian 
Skupstina  a  reiterated  declaration  that  Serbia 
officially  does  not  know  anything  about  the 
demands  of  Italy,  nor  is  she  able  to  recognize 
them.  When  Serbia's  allies,  devining  that  they 
will  be  able  to  win  over  Bulgaria,  demanded 
Serbia  to  yield  to  Bulgaria  a  part  of  Macedonia 
Serbia  has  agreed  to  it  reluctantly,  and  after 
long  deliberations  of  the  Serbian  Skupstina  a 
resolution  has  been  brought  to  the  effect  that 
Serbia  is  ready  for  sacrifices  if  by  her  so  doing 
she  be  able  to  contribute  towards  the  triumph 
of  the  common  cause  of  the  progressive  Europe, 
and  to  facilitate  the  liberation  and  unification 
of  all  the  Serbians,  Croats  and  Slovenians.  By 
that  resolution  the  Serbian  Skupstina  has 
proved  that  she  is  exalted  to  the  height  of  the 
great  part  of  Serbia  as  the  liberator,  for  she  has 
agreed  even  to  dismember  the  Serbian  fixed 
territory  and  yield  of  it  a  very  considerable 
part  which  has  been  won  and  preserved  only  at 
very  bloody  sacrifices.  It  has  proved  that  Ser- 
bia, in  compensation  for  her  territorial  con- 
cessions, does  not  demand  nor  receive  greater 
or  smaller  reparations  and  does  not  wish  to 
enter  in  "hair-splitting"  for  the  territories  in 
the  West,  but  to  contribute  her  sacrifices  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  liberating  of  her  entire 
race. 

When  before  the  incursion  of  the  Germans, 
Austrians  and  Bulgarians,  Serbia  was  offered 
by  the  Germans  certain  concssions  in  Bosnia  if 
she  would  allow  free  passage  of  German  armies 


THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV'S  APPEAL 


through  her  territory,  and  when  the  invaders 
after  having"  penetrated  far  and  wide  in  Serbia, 
promised  to  spare  both  the  Serbian  country 
and  Serbian  army  if  that  army  offers  no  or 
very  slight,  opposition  to  the  German  ag- 
gresssion;  when  the  Germans  and  the  Bulgar- 
ians were  before  the  walls  of  Nis  and  the  Ser- 
bian Skupstina  assembled  for  its  last  and  most 
painful  deliberation,  and  when  the  Premier 
Pasic  declared  that  Serbia  will  not  be  able  to 
resist  the  overwhelmingly  superior  enemy,  the 
King,  the  government  and  the  Skupstina  have 
unanimously  declared  even  to  sacrifice  their 
entire  land  but  to  fight  to  the  end,  and  not  to 
deviate  from  the  announced  idea  of  liberation 
and  unification  of  the  Serbian,  Croatian  and 
Slovenian  race. 

This  declaration,  the  sincerity  of  which 
has  not  been  insured  by  written  treaties  but  by 
blood  covered  victims  and  by  immolation  of  the 
liberty  of  the  entire  Serbian  country,  grant  to 
the  struggling  Serbia  the  right  to  be  and  to  re- 
main— as  long  as  lasts  the  war  in  which  the 
other  non-liberated  Jugo-slavs  wish  not  or  can- 
not participate — the  representative  before  the 
world  of  all  the  Jugo-slavs.  Her  suffering  and 
her  sacrifices  will  mean  that — if  even  by  her 
own  forces  she  should  not  be  able  to  liberate 
her  brothers  but  enters  our  regions  with  her 
liberating  armies  together  with  those  of  her 
allies — to  be  saluted  by  all  the  Jugoslavs  under 
Austria-Hungary,  as  the  liberator  and  redeem- 
er. 

SOLEMN  PROCLAMATION  OF  THE  JUGO- 
SLAV PROGRAMME  BY  THE  PRINCE 
REGENT  OF  SERBIA. 

The  most  momentous  event  of  the  Serbian 
Crown  Prince  Alexander's  stay  in  London  (in 
April  1916)  was  unquestionably  his  reception 
of  the  great  British  deputation  at  Claridge's 
Hotel.  Led  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
the  most  prominent  men  of  British  public  life 
came  to  pay  homage  to  Serbia  and  her  heroic 
leader.  The  Crown  Prince  said: 

'This  manifestation  of  sympathy  on  the 
part  of  so  many  represantatives  of  British  na- 
tion will  strengthen  me  when  I  shall  again  be 
at  the  head  of  my  army,  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  the  gallant  Franco-British  Army  for  the 
furthering  and  realization  of  the  ideal  for 
which  we  have  longed  through  centuries.  That 
ideal  is  the  unity  in  one  single  state  of  all  the 
Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes,  who  are  our  na- 


tion, with  the  same  traditions,  with  the  same 
language,  and  the  same  tendencies,  and  whom 
only  adverse  fate  has  divided. 

"This  ideal,  and  the  conviction  that  we 
are  fighting  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  our 
great  Allies  for  right  and  justice,  has  main- 
tained our  courage  through  the  indescribable 
trials  which  our  nation  and  army  has  had  to 
endure. 

On  April  20,  1916  his  return  from  the 
Allied  capitals,  Prince  Alexander  of  Serbia, 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Serbian  army,  ad- 
dressed a  manifesto  to  his  soldiers  to  convey  to 
them  his  impression  of  his  journey. 

"Our  powerful  friends  and  Allies  ailmire 
the  irreproachable  conduct  of  chivalrous  'Ser- 
bia, and  appreciate  the  contless  sacrifices  of 
the  Serbian  people  in  whom  they  recognize  all 
the  qualities  warranting  the  guarantee  of  an 
independent  political  existence  and  successful 
effort  towards  intellectual  development.  They 
have  decided  to  give  us  every  assistance  in  this 
great  struggle,  so  that  Serbia  may  become 
great,  that  she  may  include  all  the  Jugoslavs — 
that  she  may,  in  fine,  become  a  mighty  Jugo- 
slavia in  recompense  for  all  the  sacrifices  she 
has  hitherto  consented  to  make,  and  the  ful- 
filment of  new  requirements  which  will  show 
themselves  after  this  bloody  crisis." 

MR.     PASI6,     THE     SERBIAN    PREMIER, 

DECLARATIONS  IN  LONDON 

AND  PETROGRAD. 

April  3,  1916.  The  London  Times  had  a 
statement  from  premier  Pasic,  who  said  in 
part: 

"It  is  natural  that  the  future  Serbia  or, 
rather  the  United  Southern  Slav  people,  will 
be  a  somewhat  different  State  from  what  Ser- 
bia has  been  in  the  past.  The  new  Serbia  will 
necessarily  become  more  Western,  more  Euro- 
pan  than  the  purely  Balkan  Serbia  of  old  could 
possibly  be.  A  State  that  includes  5,000,000 
Catholic  'Southern  Slavs  within  its  borders  will 
necessarily  be  a  State  tolerant  and  respectful 
of  religious  and  political  liberty.  We  conclud- 
ed, not  long  ago,  a  concordat  with  the  Vati- 
can. When  I  had  recently  the  honour  to  b 
received  by  the  Pope,  his  Holmes  remarked 
that  the  concordat  concluded  with  us  wa: 
markedly  liberal  in  character,  and  that  the  re- 
storation of  the  Slav  liturgy  in  the  Roman  Ca- 
tholic Southern  Slav  churches  was  a  proof  of 
good  will  of  the  Vatican  towards  us.  Had  we 
not  been  animated  by  equal  good  will  the  con- 
cordat could  hardly  have  been  arranged.  We 


THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV'S  APPEAL 
Serbs  of  Serbia  belong  to  the  Orthodox  Church 
and  are  true  to  our  religion.  But  just  as  we 
are  faithful  to  our  own  beliefs,  so  we  respect 
the  belief  of  others  and  expect  them  to  be  as 
faithful  to  their  own  creed  as  we  are  to  ours. 
This  as  I  understand  it,  is  true  religious 
tolerance. 


31 

THE    CROWN   PRINCE    ALEXANDER    OF 

SERBIA  AND  THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV 

COMMITTEE. 


On  May  5,  1916  the  chief  of  the  Serbian 
Government  made  his  declarations  to  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  Russian  press  on  the  ob- 
jects and  results  of  his  diplomatic  tour,  which 
we  will  quote  from  the  Russian  journals  in  so 
far  as  they  refer  to  the  Jugoslav  question. 

According  to  the  "Retch"  of  April  23 
(May  6  n.s)  Mr.  Pasic  took  advantage  of  his 
visit  to  the  Allied  Government  to  effect  an  ex- 
change of  views  on  questions  of  vital  interna- 
tional importance,  and  especially  on  that  which 
is  nearest  to  himself,  a  knowledge  of  the  fu- 
ture organization  of  the  Serbian  nation  which 
firmly  believes  in  the  final  victory  of  the  Allies 
in  their  fight  for  the  triumph  of  right  and 
justice.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Serbian  Premier 
the  moment  has  arrived  to  clear  up  in  princ- 
iple the  intentions  of  the  Great  Powers  with 
regard  to  the  Balkan  question  in  general  and 
the  Serbian  question  in  particular.  Mr. 
Pasic  has  noted  with  satisfaction  that  the 
Serbian  ideals  have  met  with  perfect  consent 
from  the  Allies.  They  have  promised  Serbia 
every  help  to  attain  this  object.  The  idea  of 
the  unification  of  the  Serb,  Croat,  and  Slovene 
nation  in  one  State  has  been  most  sympathet- 
ically received  in  Rome,  no  less  than  in  Lon- 
don, in  Paris,  and,  finally,  in  Petrograd.  The 
Governments  of  the  Allied  Powers  have  un- 
animously recognized  that  the  national  aim  of 
Serbia,  i.e.,  the  unification  of  the  Serbian 
people  and  country  must  be  realized. 

To  the  "Russkoe  Slovo"  Mr.  Pasic,  speak- 
ing of  Serbia's  future  expressed  himself  in  the 
following  terms:  "Our  hope  in  Serbia's  future 
are  fixed  on  the  deliverance  and  union  of  the 
entire  Serb,  Croats,  and  Slovene  nation.  This 
is  our  national  ideal,  and  we  are  prepared  to 
endure  every  sacrifice  for  its  realization.  No 
one  can  say  how  the  war  will  finish  and  what 
it  will  bring  to  Serbia;  but  under  no  circum- 
stances whatsoever  can  we  renounce  our  Croat 
and  Slovene  brothers.  Serbia  places  great 
hopes  in  the  support  which  the  Allies  will  give 
her  for  the  realization  of  her  national  ideal." 


On  April  10  1916  the  Crown  Prince  Alex- 
ander, then  in  Paris,  received  the  members  of 
the  Southern  Slav  Committee  and  its  Presi- 
dent, Dr.  A.  Trumbic,  in  a  special  audience  at 
the  Hotel  Bristol,  where  he  was  staying.  On 
this  occasion  Dr.  Trumbic,  in  the  name  of  the 
Committee  and  of  all  unredeemed  Jugoslavs, 
addressed  the  Crown  Prince  in  part  as  fol- 
lows: 

"We  cannot  consent  to  any  division  of  the 
Jugoslav  nation,  just  as  we  cannot  consent  to 
any  part  of  our  blood  soaked  territory  beinsr 
wrested  from  us ;  but  we  demand  national  uni- 
ty of  our  country,  including  our  wonderful 
waters  in  the  Adriatic,  in  whose  fairy  mirror 
all  the  beauty  and  charm  of  our  fatherland  is 
reflected,  and  which  sea  is  the  very  lungs  of 
the  life  of  our  land. 

"This  is  to  be  the  new  era  in  our  history, 
founded  on  nature,  and  no  artificial  intrigue 
shall  succeed  in  frustrating  it. 
The  Crown  Prince  replied : — 
"Gentlemen,  your  words  have  deteply 
touched  my  heart.  God  and  the  fortune  of 
heroes  will  provide  that  the  wishes  you  have 
so  beautifully  expressed  will  be  realized  as 
soon  as  possible.  They  are,  of  course,  as  you 
rightly  said,  no  longer  merely  wishes,  but  a 
political  programme.  They  are  even  more 
than  a  programme.  They  are  the  goal  of  a 
struggle  in  which  the  blood  of  Serbia's  sons  is 
flowing  in  rivers.  Gentlemen,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible that  out  of  so  much  noble  blood  free- 
dom should  not  arise  anew,  freedom  for  our 
martyred  nation,  wherever  it  lives,  from  the 
Adriatic  to  Timok,  from  Perister  to  the  Tri- 
glav.  My  grandfather  fought  for  the 
Jugoslav  idea,  my  father  on  his  throne  remain- 
ed faithful  to  the  ideals  for  which  he  once 
fought  as  rebel,  rifle  in  hand.  The  same  blood 
flows  in  the  veins  of  the  grandchild  and  son. 
Forward  into  the  struggle,  gentlemen,  with 
pen,  with  the  spoken  word,  and  with  arms  in 
hand,  for  the  same  high  cause — for  the  free- 
dom of  our  whole  race  and  its  glorious  fu- 
ture!" 

MEETING  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV  COM- 
MITTEE WITH  THE  SERB  DEPUTIES 
IN  NICE  (FRANCE),  IN  APRIL  1916. 

The  members  of  various  Austro-Hungta- 
rian  Parliaments  and  Diets,  who  belong  to  the 
Southern  Slav  Committee  in  London,  in  April 


32 

1916  proceeded  to  Nice  in  order  to  enter  into 
personal  contact,  and  exchange  their  views  on 
the  general  situation  with  their  colleagues  of 
the  Serbian  Skupstina,  104  of  whom  were 
there.  The  meeting  took  place  in  the  morning 
of  April  18  in  the  Great  Hall  of  the  Marie  (the 
Town  Hall),  which  the  town  of  Nice  had 
kindly  placed  at  the  disposal  of  its  guests.  M. 
Kosta  Stojanovic,  President  of  the  'Serbian 
Club,  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  Serbian 
members  of  Parliament,  extended  a  glowing 
welcome  to  their  Jugoslav  colleagues  from  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, whom  the  unheard  of  misfor- 
tunes which  have  befallen  the  common  mother 
country  on  both  banks  of  the  Sava  and  Drina 
have  now  brought  together  so  tragically  in 
exile  on  the  friendly  soil  of  France.  Then  M. 
Ante  Trumbic,  President  of  the  Jugoslav  Com- 
mittee, in  a  most  graphic  speech,  which  was 
frequently  interrupted  by  enthuasiastic  ap- 
plause, gave  an  account  of  all  the  propagandist 
work  accomplished  by  the  Southern  Slav 
Committee  during  these  twenty  months  of  war 
in  all  the  allied  countries,  and  in  several 
neutral  states  as  well,  for  the  realization  of 
the  ideal  we  all  share  in  common,  viz.,  the  as- 
surance of  the  unification  of  all  our  race  in  one 
State  under  the  native  dynasty  of  the  Kara- 
gjorjevic !  After  M.  Marko  Trifkovic,  in  the 
name  of  the  Serbian  deputies,  had  reaffirmed 
the  complete  accord  between  the  Serbian  Club 
and  the  Jugoslav  Committee,  not  only  with  re- 
gard to  their  political  programme,  but  also  as 
to  the  methods  of  the  propaganda,  the  Presi- 
dent declared  the  proceedings  terminated. 


THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV'S  APPEAL 

DECLARATION  OF  THE  SERBIAN  SKUP- 
STINA AT  CORFU,  SEPTEMBER  1916. 

In  September  1916,  the  Serbian  Parliament, 
(Skupstina),  met  in  Corfu  for  a  short  session, 
and  has  given  out  the  following  official  bulle- 
tin: 

"After  seven  days  deliberation  in  secret 
sessions  in  which  foreign  minister  Pasich,  made 
his  report,  based  on  the  secret  documents  in  the 
foreign  ministry ; — The  Skupstina  held  an  open 
session  and  without  a  dissenting  vote,  has  ap- 
proved the  report  of  the  Royal  Servian  Govern- 
ment as  well  as  the  Foreign  Ministry  future 
course  of  action,  which  the  goverment  has  pro- 
posed to  pursue.  The  Skupstina  also  has  voted 
the  following  resolution : — 

After  hearing  the  Government  report  of 
the  foreign  situation,  Skupstina  consider  its 
duty  to  affirm  again,  for  its  own  part  too,  after 
all  the  suffering  and  privation  of  the  Serbian 
people,  that  we  stand  firmly  most  faithful  to 
our  National  claims. 

The  course  which  Serbia  has  pursued  un- 
til, the  present  time,  and  thru  which  she  has 
acquired  very  valuable  friendship,  it  is  the 
only  course  which  leads  to  the  realization  of 
her  National  Ideals.  The  painful  road  which 
we  have  gone  thru  and  by  which  we  lost  nume- 
rous national  treasures,  our  most  valuable 
treasure,  the  honor  of  our  people  has  been  left 
untouched. — Depressed  in  our  sorrow,  but  be- 
lieving in  our  ideals  and  in  the  ideals  of  human- 
ity,—Serbia  full  of  pride  and  with  full  confi- 
dence looks  into  the  future. ' ' — 


IV. 


THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV  EMMIGRANTS  FOR 
THE  CAUSE  OF  LIBERTY  AND  UNITY 


A  GREAT  JUGOSLAV  CONVENTION  HELD 
IN  CHICAGO,  ILL.  IN  1915. 

At  a  general  Congress  in  Chicago  on 
March  10,  1915,  the  Jugoslav  emigrants  from 
Austria-Hungary  in  America  and  Canada,  and 
represented  by  563  delegates,  recorded  their 
enthusiastic  adherence  to  this  national  pro- 
gramme. 

(1)  The  following  resolution  was  unani- 
mously passed: — 

"The  Croats,  Serbs,  and  Slovenes  are  one 
and  the  same  as  regards  nationality  and  langu- 
age, though  they  are  known  by  different  names. 
They  inhabit  a  number  of  provinces  in  South- 
Eastern  Austria-Hungary,  as  well  as  the  king- 
doms of  Serbia  and  Montenegro.  Collectively 
they  are  known  as  'Jugoslavs.'  In  Austria- 
Hungary,  where  the  Germans  and  Magyars 
are  the  dominant  races,  the  Jugoslavs  are  ruth- 
lessly oppressed.  Having  no  political  rights, 
they  are  economically  victimized  and  exploited, 
hampered  in  their  development,  socially  down- 
trodden, and  their  nationality  is  imperilled. 
This  state  of  affairs  can  no  longer  be  tolerated, 
if  their  national  existence  and  individuality  is 
to  be  preserved,  but  their  only  hope  lies  in  lib- 
eration from  Austria-Hungary  and  the  sever- 
ance of  every  tie  that  binds  them  to  her.  Their 
lives  and  national  development  can  only  be 
safeguarded  through  a  union  of  all  Jugoslav 
countries  with  Serbia  in  one  single  state.  They 
confidently  appeal  to  the  Powers  of  the  Triple 
Entente,  who  are  waging  this  war  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  down-trodden  nations,  and 
entreat  their  help  in  the  realization  of  their 
just  aspirations,  which,  by  establishing  order 
in  South-Eastern  Europe,  will  greatly  help  in 
laying  a  durable  foundation  for  the  world's 
peace." 


RESOLUTION  PASSED  AT  NIs   (SERBIA) 

On  May  9,  1915,  a  large  demonstration  took 
place  in  Nish,  when  at  a  meeting  of  several 
thousand  Serbian  and  Austro-Hungarian  Jugo- 
slavs, a  resolution  was  passed,  demanding  the 
union  of  all  Jugoslavs,  and  protesting  against 
the  abandonment  of  any  part  whatsoever  of 
the  national  territory. 

The  resolution  was  worded  as  follows: — 
' '  In  these  momentous  times  of  sacrifice  and 
of  faith  in  Freedom  and  the  Right,  we  herewith 
proclaim  the  indivisibility  of  our  Serbo-Croato- 
Slovene  national  unity,  which  must  be  polit- 
ically realized,  even  as  it  has  already  been 
morally  accomplished.  We  therefore  declare 
that  we  will  never  permit  any  purely  Jugoslav 
territory  to  be  sacrificed  or  dismembered,  least 
of  all  in  any  part  of  our  Adriatic  coast-lands 
inhabited  by  Serbs,  Croats,  or  Slovenes.  We 
appeal  to  all  the  Powers  who  are  at  this  moment 
fighting  for  the  principles  of  nationality  and 
justice,  to  guarantee  the  unity  of  our  race,  so 
that  Serbia  may  fulfill  her  mission  of  liberation 
and  thus  ensure  one  of  the  primary  conditions 
for  the  future  peace  of  (Europe.  The  dis- 
memberment of  the  Adriatic  coast-lands  would 
be  an  act  of  terrible  injustice,  especially  in  a 
war  waged  for  the  liberation  of  nations. ' ' 

THE  JUGOSLAVS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
AND  SERBIA. 

In  the  summer  1915,  Jugoslav  mass  meet- 
ings were  held  in  all  the  great  cities  in  the 
States  possessing  Jugoslav  colonies. 

The  meetings  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  Chicago, 
Cleveland,  San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles  and 
New  York — each  attended  by  from  two  to  three 
thousand  delegates — cabled  the  following  mes- 
sage to  the  Serbian  Premier,  M.  Pasic : — 

"In  the  name  of  our  brothers  in  Austria- 
Hungary,  who  are  at  present  unable  to  express 
their  thoughts  and  sympathies,  as  well  as  on 


34  THE   SOOT  HERN 

our  own  behalf,  we  hereby  declare  that  all  Slo- 
venes, Croats,  and  Serbs  regard  the  struggle 
of  Serbia  as  their  own  national  struggle,  and 
Serbia's  ideals  as  their  o'.vn.  We  unanimously 
demand  that  by  the  stipulations  of  the  future 
Peace  Congress  not  one  inch  of  Jugoslav  terri- 
tory may  remain  under  foreign  rule;  but  that 
all  this  territory  shall  be  united  in  one  state 
with  Serbia  and  Montenegro.  With  the  earnest 
request  that  you  will  in  due  course  give  your 
support  to  this  demand,  and  with  full  confi- 
dence in  you,  we  hereby  send  you  our  best 
wishes  from  this  great  meeting;  and  through 
you  we  beg  to  greet  the  Serbian  King,  the 
Crown  Prince,  and  the  whole  Serbian  Army 
as  our  liberators." 

Similar  resolutions  were  passed  at  other 
meetings,  and  the  Jugoslav  propaganda  as- 
sumed considerable  proportions  in  the  U.  S.  A. 

JUGOSLAVS  IN  AMERICA  FOR 
THE  ALLIES. 

The  following  resolution  was  unanimously 
carried  at  all  the  great  Jugoslav  meetings  in 
America  (in  Summer  1915). 

"In  the  name  of  our  oppressed  brothers 
in  Austria-Hungary,  who  are  at  present  com- 
pelled by  ruthless  tyranny  to  fight  against 
their  brother  Slavs,  or  to  languish  in  prison, 
and  who  are  therefore  unable  to  lay  the  facts 
of  their  sufferings  before  the  world,  we  hereby 
protest  energically  before  the  whole  of  the  civ- 
ilized world  against  the  inhumanities  now 
being  practised  upon  them ;  against  the  hang- 
ing and  shooting  of  innocent  people;  the 
strangling  and  perversion  of  law  and  justice  ; 
the  slaughter  of  women  and  children ;  the  cal- 
ling to  the  colours  of  youths  under  military 
age  and  infirm  old  men ;  against  the  placing  of 
our  countrymen  in  the  first  line  of  danger ; 
against  foully  murdering  them  from  behind; 
and  against  the  burning  of  homesteads  and  the 
robbing  of  property  in  our  devasted  country. 
We  implore  all  the  brothers  of  our  race  in  both 
continents  to  turn  their  hate  and  their  arms 
against  their  oppressors,  and  we  implore  our 
brothers  who  are  suffering  in  prison  to  be 
patient  and  to  trust  that  victory  will  be  with 
the  Slavs  and  their  friends,  the  French  and 
British,  whose  triumphs  will  achieve  the  Ju- 
goslav ideal  of  liberty  and  unity.  We  pledge 
our  solemn  word  that  we  will  in  every  way 
help  the  cause  of  the  Slavs  and  their  Allies; 
that  we  will  strive  to  promote  our  own  na- 


SLAV'S  APPEAL 

tional  unity;  that  we  will  not  by  strikes  pr6- 
vent  or  hamper  the  work  of  any  factories  en- 
gaged in  supplying  armaments  and  munitions 
to  Russia,  Great  Britain,  or  France ;  and  that 
we  will  rouse  our  brothers  from  the  sleep  of 
apathy  with  the  clarion  call  to  freedom,  which 
shall  finally  dawn  upon  the  Jugoslav  also — the 
last  slaves  in  Europe." 

JUGOSLAV    MANIFESTATIONS    IN    THE 
UNITED  STATES  IN  SEPTEMBER  1915. 

During  the  month  of  September,  the  great 
Jugoslav  Labour  Union,  "Hrvatska  Narodna 
Zajednica,"  which  has  35,000  members,  held  its 
congress  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  U.  S.  A.  The 
Austrian  Consuls  had  previously  done  their 
best  to  undermine  the  authority  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Union,  who  are  anti-Austrian  and 
thoroughly  patriotic,  and  to  replace  them  by 
their  own  few  followers.  The  Jugoslav  papers 
in  the  United  States  even  publish  the  facsimile 
of  a  letter  from  the  Austrian  Consul  in  Pitts- 
burg,  from  which  it  transpires,  that  Austrian 
agents  actually  founded  a  pseudo-Jugoslav 
paper,  and  tried  to  bribe  the  delegates  of  the 
Congress.  Nevertheless  the  Congress  passed 
off  without  any  kind  of  disturbance;  all 
Austrian  attempts  were  defeated,  the  old  lead- 
ers were  re-elected,  and  duly  authorized  to 
continue  to  make  use  of  the  official  paper  of 
the  Union  for  the  propaganda  in  favour  of  the 
idea  of  Jugoslav  emancipation  from  the 
Austrian  yoke. 

Towards  the  end  of  September  a  great  de- 
monstration called  the  "Slovenski  Dan" 
(Slovene  Day)  was  organized  in  San  Francisco, 
at  the  Pacific  Exhibition.  All  Slovenes  present, 
and  a  large  number  of  other  Jugoslavs  as  well, 
demonstrated  in  favour  of  their  liberation  and 
unification. 

On  September  18  and  19  the  Congress  of  all 
the  Croatian  Gymnastic  Associations  in  the 
United  States  took  place  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Public  exhibitions  of  gymnastics  and  pro- 
cessions of  many  thousand  gymnasts  were  most 
successfully  arranged.  On  this  occasion  it  was 
decided  that  henceforth  all  Croatian,  Serbian, 
and  Slovene  gymnastic  associations  should  be 
united  in  one  great  single  Union,  which  will  be 
in  constant  touch  with  the  Czech,  Polish,  and 
Russian  Associations.  This  resolution  was  ap- 
proved by  the  great  Congress  of  representa- 
tives of  the  labour  Union  "Hrvatska  Narodna 


SOUTHERN  SLAV'S  APPEAL 


Zajednica,"  by  the  Serbian  Unions  "Sloga" 
and  "Srbobran,"  the  political  Unions  "Hrvat- 
ski  Savez"  and  "Slovenacka  Liga,'  and  many 
other  Unions  and  Associations,  representing  in 
all  more  than  150,000  organised  Jugoslavs  in 
the  United  States.  At  this  meeting  the  follow- 
ing Resolution  was  unanimously  carried: — 

"The  Croats,  Serbs,  and  Slovenes  are  one 
and  the  same  nation  in  blood,  language,  and 
by  the  national  ideals  they  hold  in  common. 
We  are  heart  and  soul  with  the  army,  the  na- 
tion, and  the  Government  of  our  brothers  in 
Serbia  and  Montenegro.  Their  struggle  is  our 
struggle.  Shoulder  to  shoulder  we  stand  with 
them  against  our  common  enemies  the  Teutons, 
Magyars,  and  Turks  in  this  fight  for  the  reali- 
zation of  the  freedom  and  unity  of  all  Jugo- 
slavs in  one  great  national  State.  We  trust 
that  no  part  of  our  nation,  nor  one  inch  of  our 
soil,  will  be  given  into  slavery  to  foreigners. 
We  confidently  expect  the  victory  of  our  bro- 
thers the  Russians,  and  of  their  noble  Allies 
and  our  own.  Full  of  loyalty  to  the  great 
country  of  Washington  and  Lincoln,  we  hail 
the  wise  policy  of  President  Wilson  with  re- 
gard to  the  hostile  and  inhuman  conduct  of  the 
Austro-Germans. ' ' 

A  copy  of  the  resolution  was  forwarded 
to  Mr.  Lansing,  Secretary  of  State,  to  Mr.  Pa- 
sic,  the  Serbian  Premier,  to  Mr.  Plamenac,  the 
Montenegrin  Minister,  to  the  Jugoslav  Com- 
mittee in  London,  and  to  the  Russian,  British, 
and  French  Ambassadors  in  Washington." 

Finaly,  on  September  23,  the  "Hrvatski 
Savez"  (Croatian  League)  held  a  meeting  in 
Cleveland  protesting  energetically  against  the 
Austro-German  intrigues  in  America.  A  re- 
solution similar  to  those  quoted  above  was  pas- 
sed, and  copies  of  it  were  sent  to  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  Allied  Powers.  The  League  also 
passed  a  resolution  approving  of  the  work  of 
the  Jugoslav  Committee  in  London  and  promis- 
ing it  every  possible  support. 

JUGOSLAV  CLERGY  AND  NATIONAL 
UNITY 

On  August  27,  1915,  prompted  by  the 
Serbo-Orthodox  priest,  the  Rev.  Father  Nikolai 
Velimirovic,  the  Catholic,  Orthodox,  and  Uni- 
tarian priests  of  Jugoslav  nationality  resident 
in  the  United  States,  held  a  joint  meeting  in 
Chicago.  Opening  the  discussion,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Reljic,  Chairman  of  the  meeting,  remarked  that 
"after  a  short  interval  of  many  centuries"  this 
was  the  first  assembly  at  which  priests  belong- 


ing to  different  confessions  were  met  together 
to  demonstrate  that  divergencies  of  faith  are 
powerless  to  divide  either  the  Jugoslav  nation 
or  their  clergy.  The  meeting  adopted  the 
proposal  that  these  joint  meetings  should  be 
continued,  elaborated  a  programme  for  further 
activities,  and  passed  a  resolution  expressing 
the  "complete  agreement  of  the  Jugoslav  clergy 
with  the  will  of  the  nation  as  expressed  at 
many  meetings".  The  resolution  proceeds: 
"We  also  claim  the  fulfilment  of  those  demands 
of  right  and  justice  for  which  our  free  brothers 
in  Serbia  and  Montenegro  are  fighting,  and 
for  which  our  unredeemed  brothers  in  Austria- 
Hungary  are  suffering.  And  God's  justice, 
which  we  hold  to  be  on  our  side,  consists  in 
this,  that  all  Slavs  in  Europe  shall  be  liber- 
ated from  the  chains  of  German  militarism  and 
Austro-Hungarian  oppression;  that  all  Jugo- 
slavs, being  one  nation  by  blood,  language,  and 
national  claims,  shall  be  liberated  from 
Austro-Hungarian  misrule  and  united  in  one 
independent  State;  that,  futhermore,  not  one 
inch  of  Jugoslav  soil  shall  be  excluded  from  the 
borders  of  this  State,  either  in  Dalmatia,  or  in 
Istria,  in  Slovenia,  the  Banat,  or  Macedonia; 
that  those  differences  of  faith,  which  have 
been  regarded  as  the  greatest  obstacles  to 
national  unity,  are  in  fact  and  according  to  the 
conviction  of  ourselves,  who  are  representa- 
tives of  the  two  principal  confessions  in  Jugo- 
slavia, no  obstacles  at  all  to  the  practical  reali- 
zation of  our  ideal  of  one  nation  in  one  State; 
that  the  free  and  united  Jugoslav  nation  should 
be  permitted — free  from  foreign  interference — 
to  organize  the  Jugoslav  state  on  a  democratic 
basis,  which  will  guarantee  political  and  re- 
ligious freedom;  that  hitherto  Serbia  and 
Montenegro  have  proved  by  their  excellent 
example  that  Catholic  and  Orthodox  Christians 
can  live  together  in  love  and  friendship  in  one 
State.  We  speak  in  our  own  name  and  in 
that  of  our  brothers,  who  are  still  in  Austro- 
Hungarian  bondage,  and  we  are  sure  that  these 
brothers  would  speak  as  we  do,  were  they  per- 
mitted the  liberty  to  do  so." 

SLOVENES  IN  AMERICA 

On  April  28,  1916,  a  great  Slovene  meeting 
was  held  in  Cleveland,  U.  S.  A.,  at  which  500 
delegates  represented  the  Slovene  emigrants  in 
North  America.  The  meeting  adopted  a  resolu- 
tion which  was  sent  to  President  Wilson  and 
which  reads: — 


"We,  Slovenians  of  Cleveland  and  vicinity, 
gathered  together  in  a  national  mass  meeting, 
April  28,  1916,  realize  that  in  view  of  the 
present  conditions  existing  between  the  United 
States  and  the  German  Empire,  it  is  our 
patriotic  duty  as  good  American  cititzens  to 
pronounce  our  unlimited  loyalty  to  the  consti- 
tion  and  laws  of  the  United  States;  and  we 
express  our  loyalty  and  our  sincere  thanks  to 
the  President,  Woodrow  Wilson,  for  his  noble 
defence  of  humanity,  honour,  and  the  welfare 
of  American  citizens. 

4 'We  express  also  our  heartfelt  gratitude 
to  those  fighting  for  real  democracy  and  the 
freedom  of  small  and  oppressed  nations,  and 
we  thank  noble  France  and  her  allies,  as  we 
see  in  their  victory  the  liberation  of  our 
brethern  suffering  under  the  inhuman  Austro- 
Hungarian  rule,  from  which  tyranny  we  fled 
across  the  ocean  to  the  land  of  golden  liberty. 

"United  by  ties  of  blood,  language,  and 
suffering  with  the  Creations  and  Serbians,  we 
feel  the  sacrifices  and  sorrows  of  Serbia  as  our 
own  suffering,  and  we  hope  from  the  bottom  of 
our  hearts  for  the  liberation  and  union  of  our 
nation  in  one  independent  and  democratic  state 
of  Jugoslavia." 

JUGOSLAVS  IN  AMERICA  AND 
PREPARADNESS 

With  reference  to  the  Preparadness  in  the 
United  States,  the  Jugoslav  immigrants  called 
several  meetings,  from  which  the  following 
message  was  sent  to  President  Wilson: — 

"The  Southern  Slav  Serbs,  Croats,  and 
Slovenes  here  assembled  at  their  national  meet- 
ing, send  their  most  sincere  greetings  to  Your 
Excellency,  and  beg  to  express  their  complete 
confidence  in  your  guidance  of  the  politics  of 
the  United  States.  They  are  prepared  to 
respond  to  your  call  at  any  moment,  should  it 
become  necessary  to  repulse  foreign  attacks 
aimed  at  the  foundations  of  our  democratic 
institutions." 

The  meeting  received  the  following 
answer : — 

"The  President  highly  appreciates  the 
noble  words  of  our  message,  and  has  ordered 
me  to  express  his  profound  gratitude  to  you 
and  to  all  concerned.  Your  friendly  assurances 
have  pleased  and  encouraged  him  extremely. — 
Yours  sincerely, 

"J.  P.  TUMULTY, 
"Secretary  to  the  President  of  the  U.  S." 


SOUTHERN  SLAVS  APPEAL 

A    GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE 

SOUTHERN  SLAVS  IN  SOUTH 

AMERICA 


In  January,  1916,  at  a  meeting  held  in 
Autofagasta,  Chile,  the  delegates  from  all  the 
Jugoslav  Colonies  in  South  America,  passed 
the  following  resolution : — 

"In  these  epoch-making  times  of  sacrifice 
and  hope  for  right  and  freedom,  we  proclaim 
first  of  all  the  indivisibility  of  our  Serbo- 
Croato-Slovene  National  Unity,  which  must  be 
politically  realized,  even  as  it  is  already 
morally  accomplished  .Consequently,  we  declare 
that  we  will  never  permit  that  purely  Jugo- 
slav territories  be  sacrificed  or  partitioned, 
particularly  our  Adriatic  littoral,  which  is 
inhabited  by  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes.  We 
appeal  to  all  the  Powers  who  are  at  the  present 
moment  fighting  for  the  principles  of  national- 
ity and  justice  to  safeguard  the  unity  of  our 
race,  and  thus  to  enable  Serbia  to  fulfil  her 
mission  of  liberation,  which  is  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  stable  peace  in  Europe.  The  dismem- 
berment of  the  Adriatic  littoral  would  be  a 
terrible  injustice,  especially  in  a  war  for  the 
liberation  of  nations. 

"With  the  repeated  declaration  that  they 
have  broken  all  ties  that  bound  them  to  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy  and  the  House  of 
Habsburg,  they  place  themselves  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Serbian  Govennent  and  express  their 
complete  confidence  in  the  Southern  Slav 
Committee  in  London,  which  they  look  upon  as 
the  legitimate  representative  body  of  the 
Southern  Slav  countries  under  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  yoke. 

"They  consider  themselves — and  desire  to 
be  considered  by  the  Allies  of  Serbia — as  Allies 
in  the  common  struggle,  and  claim  the  protec- 
tion of  the  representatives  of  the  Entente." 

This  congress,  which  was  presided  over  by 
Messrs.  Petrinovic  and  Jordan,  assumed  truly 
impressive  proportions.  All  the  Jugoslav 
colonies  of  the  five  Republics  were  united  in  a 
huge  gathering  in  order  to  take  their  import- 
ant decisions  jointly,  and  to  form  a  vast  Jugo- 
slav National  Defence  organization. 

The  attendance  was  considerable,  in  spite 
of  intervening  distances  and  travelling  ex- 
penses. Chilian  personages,  as  well  as  French 
and  English,  were  present.  M.  Micic,  Delegate 
from  the  London  Committe,  and  M.  Leontic, 


THE   SOUTHERN 

Representative  of  the  Young  Jugoslavs,  were 
likewise  present. 

In  six  days  of  deliberation,  the  Jugoslavs 
of  South  America  have  fulfilled  all  the  hopes 
of  their  fellow-citizens,  and  at  this  momentius 
juncture  they  have  nobly  fulfilled  their 
national  duty  and  deserved  well  of  their 
country. 

They  have  severed  all  the  links  that  could 
still  bind  them  to  the  Empire.  They  have 
placed  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  "their 
native  King",  Peter  I.,  and  of  the  Serbian 
Goverment.  They  have  passed  a  vote  of  com- 
plete confidence  on  the  Southern  Slav  Com- 
mittee, regarding  this  as  the  sole  legitimate 
representative  body  of  the  enslaved  countries. 
Prom  the  practical  point  of  view,  these  resolu- 
tions assumed  the  following  forms.  A  new 
organization,  the  Jugoslav  National  Defence, 
has  been  formed  with  a  very  thorough-going 
programme.  Mr.  Baburica  is  the  President, 
and  the  Council  (Senate)  is  presided  over  by 
Mr.  J.  Moro.  Next,  an  amalgamation  of  all 
Jugoslav  papers  in  South  America  has  been 
realized,  and  all  will  henceforth  represent  a 
single  outlook.  Furthermore,  the  members 
have  contributed  the  largest  (proportionate) 
donation  to  the  Serbo-Montenegrin  Red  Cross 
Society  and  Orphans,  and  have  undertaken  the 
responsibility  for  the  budget  of  the  Southern 
Slav  Committee.  Finally,  they  have  recruited 
a  volutary  legion  to  help  in  the  national 
deliverance. 

These,  then,  are  the  practical  results.  Their 
solidarity  with  martyred  Serbia,  thus  openly 
avowed  by  the  Congress,  demonstrates  that  the 
Jugoslavs  deserve  their  liberty,  since  they  are 
prepared  and  demand  as  their  right  to  suffer 
for  its  name.  Thus  we  are  in  possession  of 
yet  another  proof  that  the  Jugoslav  nation  in 
its  entirety  is  conscious  of  the  greatness  of  the 
times  through  which  we  are  passing,  and  of  the 
aim  in  view. 

The  Jugoslovenska  Drzava,  the  organ  of 
the  Jugoslav  National  Defence,  in  bringing  out 
its  first  number,  comments  upon  the  growing 
interest  aroused  by  the  Jugoslav  cause  among 
the  Chilian  public  and  the  foreign  colonies. 
The  entire  Chilian  press  has  devoted  long 
articles,  and  in  some  cases  an  entire  issue,  to 
these  events.  Chilian  publicists  (notably  M. 
Villagrau-Valenzuela)  spoke  at  the  Congress. 
Jugoslav  faith  and  determination  deserve  in  the 
eyes  of  everybody  a  respect  which  ought  to  be 


SLAV'S    APPEAL 


37 


all  the  greater  as  it  is  manifesting  itself  so 
strikingly  at  the  very  moment  when  the  in- 
dependent principalities — Serbia  and  Monte- 
negro— are  likewise  crushed  and  enslaved  in 
their  turn. 

It  is  well  to  mention  that  the  South  Amer- 
ican Jugoslavs  come  for  the  greater  part  from 
the  littoral  of  Dalmatia  and  Croatia,  notably 
the  presidents  of  the  Congress  and  the  new 
organizations,  are  Croats  from  the  littoral,  and 
all  are  natives  of  the  Dalmatian  Isles. 

THE  JUGOSLAV  COLONY  IN 
NEW  ZEALAND 

There  is  a  small  Jugoslav  colony  in  New 
Zealand,  numbering  3,000  Croats,  chiefly 
working  men  from  Dalmatia.  This  tiny  colony 
has  nevertheless  its  own  friendly  societies  and 
publishes  its  own  newspaper.  Since  the  begin- 
ing  of  the  war  it  has  collected  £200  for  the 
British  Relief  Fund,  £2,000  for  the  Serbian  and 
Montenegrin  Red  Cross  Society  and  the  Relief 
Fund  for  Austrian  emigrants,  and  given  one 
hundred  volunteers  to  the  British  Army. 

JUGOSLAVS  IN  BRITISH  COLUMBIA 

Last  summer,  the  Jugoslavs — Croats,  Slo- 
venes, and  Serbs — in  British  Columbia  have 
organized  themselves  and  have  held  a  mass 
meeting  in  Vancouver.  The  meeting,  which 
was  attended  by  many  British  sympathizers, 
was  very  fully  reported  in  all  the  English 
papers  in  Vancouver,  and  the  sympathy 
extended  to  the  Jugoslav  cause  by  the  Press 
has  been  quite  remarkable.  At  the  meeting  the 
present  position  of  the  Jugoslavs  in  Austria- 
Hungary  and  the  efforts  for  deliverance  and 
unification  were  explained,  after  which  a 
resolution  was  passed,  demanding  the  liber- 
ation of  all  the  Croats,  Serbs,  and  Slovenes 
from  Austria-Hungary  and  their  unification 
with  Serbia  in  one  single  independent  State. 
Telegrams  expressing  loyalty  to  their  land  of 
refuge  and  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies  were  sent 
to  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  Connaught,  to  Sir 
Robert  Borden,  the  Canadian  Premier,  to  Mr. 
W.  J.  Bowser,  Premier  of  British  Columbia, 
and  to  the  United  States. 


38 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S    APPEAL 


THE  SOUTHERN  SLAVS  APPEAL  TO  THE 
AMERICAN  PEOPLE. 

Based  upon  the  immortal 
"Declaration  of  Independence." 


When  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it 
becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve 
the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them 
with  another,  and  to  assume  among  the  powers 
of  the  earth,  the  separate  and  equal  station 
to  which  the  Laws  of  Nature  and  of  Nature's 
God  entitles  them,  a  decent  respect  to  the 
opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they  should 
declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to  the 
separation  from  the  dual  monarchy,  namely 
Austria-Hungary  and  to  form  a  union  with  our 
kin  of  southern  Europe  based  upon  the  Ameri- 
can democratic  principles,  consisting  of  the 
following  branches  of  the  Southern  Slavic 
race,  namely,  Croatians,  Serbians  and  Slovenes. 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  selfevi.dent,  that 
all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endow- 
ed by  their  Creator,  with  certain  unalienable 
rights,  that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  Happiness.  And  since  the 
government  of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  Austria- 
Hungary,  is  entirely  foreign  to  its  downtrod- 
den Slavic  subjects  in  race  and  traditions,  it 
has  furthered  its  tyrannical  ambitions  by  at- 
tempting severely  to  Germanize  them,  who  are 
a  people  with  nobler  traditions,  more  ancient 
than  the  Teutonic,  whose  so  called  "flower 
of  chivalry"  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  name- 
ly the  Teutonic  "Knights  of  the  Cross",  were 
in  reality  but  a  band  of  robbers  and  plunder- 
ers, masquerading  under  the  sacred  symbol  of 
"The  Cross",  conquering  Prussia,  Pomerania, 
etc.,  in  1309,  and  successfully  Germanizing  the 
Slavic  inhabitants  by  the  power  of  the  sword. 

The  history  of  the  present  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  is  a  monstrous  record  of  re- 
peated injuries  and  usurpations,  all  having  for 
direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  absolute 
tyranny  over  the  Southern  Slavs  as  a  whole. 
To  prove  this  let  facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid 
world : 

He  has  with  the  assistance  of  his  Germanic 
clique,  dissolved  parliament  repeatedly  for 
opposing  their  invasions  on  the  rights  of  the 
people;  sent  swarms  of  officials  to  harass  our 
people  and  eat  out  their  substance ;  refused 
his  assent  to  laws,  the  most  wholesome  and 
necessary  for  the  public  good;  effected  to 


render  the  military  superior  and  independent 
of  the  civil  power ;  abolished  some  of  our  most 
valuable  laws,  and  altering  fundamentally  the 
forms  of  our  government ;  politically  attempt- 
ed to  complete  the  works  of  death,  desolation 
and  tyranny,  already  many  times  begun  with 
circumstances  of  cruelty  and  perfidy  scarcely 
paralleled  in  the  most  barbarous  ages,  and 
totally  unworthy  of  the  heads  of  a  civilized  na- 
tion; constrained  our  people  to  bear  arms 
against  their  brethren,  the  Serbians  especially, 
or  to  fall  themselves  by  their  hands;  incited 
domestic  insurrections  amongst  us,  and  have 
allied  themselves  with  that  gory  tornado,  the 
Turk,  against  democracy  and  civilization;  and 
in  every  stage  of  these  oppressions  we  have 
petitioned  for  redress  in  the  most  humble 
terms,  being  in  each  and  every  instance  answer- 
ed only  by  repeated  injury. 

A  government  whose  fundamental  princi- 
ples are  thus  marked  by  acts,  which  define 
barbarous  tyrants,  are  unfit  for  human  fellow- 
ship among  sister  nations. 

We  Croatians,  Serbians  and  'Slovenes  (or 
Slovenians)  situated  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  Dual  Monarchy,  together  with  our  kindred 
states  have  for  ten  centuries  been  the  bulwark 
of  Christendom  against  the  Turks,  Avars  and 
other  tribes  of  Mongol  origin.  Theorize,  our 
American  brother,  theorize  upon  the  vast  dif- 
ference that  would  have  been  to  the  detriment 
of  western  civilization  if  the  Southern  Slav 
did  not  for  a  thousand  years  resist  the  west 
ward  march  of  Asiatic  barbarians  on  many  a 
glorious  battlefield,  immortally  inscribed  in 
history !  Almighty  God,  alone,  may  know  if 
the  Gaul,  Anglo-Saxon  or  Latin  would  have 
advanced  from  darkness,  and  taken  the  world 
with  them  as  they  did,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
heroic  Slav  battling  the  hordes  of  Satan  on  the 
eastern  and  southern  borders  of  Europe. 

The  only  source  of  information  to  be  ha'" 
by  the  western  world  was  through  Teutonic 
channels,  and  it  being  the  height  of  absurdity 
to  expect  compliments  from  one's  tyrant,  we 
therefore  are  not  surprised  at  the  mistakei 
conception  of  the  European  Slavic  world  in 
general,  that  is  held  in  this  glorious  republic, 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S    APPEAL 


Henryk  Sienkiewicz,  the  author  of  "Quo 
Vadis",  said  that  "America  was  the  conscience 
of  the  world."  AMERICANS!  we  appeal  to 
that  conscience ;  to  those  noble  hearts  that  feed 
martyred  Belgium;  to  your  seats  of  science 
whose  genius  freed  stricken  Serbia  of  typhus ; 
to  those  noble  traditions  and  impulses  th 
drove  you  into  the  realm  of  Mars  in  1861  fo 
over  four  bloody  years,  which  resulted  in  the 
emancipation  of  the  black  race  and  the  prese?- 
vation  of  the  Great  Union  under  the  genir- 
of  martyred  Lincoln, — for  sympathy — for  You' 
Voice  at  the  Fatal  Hour,  to  help  us  secure  our 
coveted  freedom  through  the  power  of  you: 
moral  and  material  influence  in  world  con- 
ferences and  diplomacy. 

The  Central  Empires,  in  their  official  war 
reports,  state  that  the  Croatians  or  Dalmatians 
and  other  Slavs  are  enthusiastic  victors  in  com- 
bats with  their  brother  Slavs,  such  as  Rus- 


sians and  Serbians,  thereby  trying  to  sow  the 
seed  of  discord  even  among  the  Slavs  through- 
out the  world,  by  trying  to  fasten  their  bloody 
claws  on  the  conscience  of  their  numerous 
victims. 

Therefore,  we  wish  to  express  our  thanks 
and  appreciation  to  the  American  people  for 
liberties  extended  us  and  sincerely  desire  to  re- 
mind them  of  their  ancestors  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  the  immortal  heroes  of  1776,  when- 
ever they  enter  a  discussion  of  the  Slavs  in 
general,  thereby  extending  us  what  is  right- 
fully ours, — the  sympathies  of  a  great  demo- 
cracy, towards  a  downtrodden  nation  that  de- 
sires a  share  of  the  glow  of  that  mighty 
beacon— LIBERTY. 

From  the  "Appeal" 
Issued  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Croatian  Benevolent  Society  "Dalmatia" 
of  Oakland,  Cal.  1916. 


MUSSULMANS   FROM   BOSNIA-EEEZEGOVINA  FOR  THE  ALLIES. 


La  Tribune  de  Geneve,  in  its  issue  of  July 
8,  1916  publishes  the  proclamation  by  the 
Bosnian  and  Herzegovinian  Mussulmans  living 
in  Switzerland: — 

"The  Mussulman  academic  youth  from 
Bosnia-Herzegovina  in  Switzerland  unanimous- 
ly hails  the  action  of  the  Grand  Sherif  of  Mec- 
ca, the  chief  of  Islam,  and  sovereign  lord  of 
the  native  county  of  Mohammed. 

"As  faithful  sons  of  Islam  we  perfectly 
approve  the  manner  in  which  the  Grand  She- 
rif has  acted  in  the  interests  of  our  sacred 
duties,  and  we  emphatically  blame  the  present 
Government  in  Turkey,  which  has  dishonoured 
our  Holy  Faith  by  placing  it  at  the  service 
of  Austro-German  interests.  It  is  a  great  mis- 
take to  believe  that  the  Turkish  Sultans  were 
the  rightful  protectors  of  Islam.  Neither  Or- 
togol  Bey,  nor  Osman  Ali,  nor  the  Sultan  So- 
liman  II.  the  Great  ever  possessed  any  author- 
ity to  justify  their  depriving  one  Mussulman 
race  of  liberty  to  the  advantage  of  another; 
and  they  are  still  less  in  a  position  to  justify 
the  abuse  of  our  religion  in  their  own  interests. 

"Before;  the   proclamation   of   the   'Holy 


War'  on  the  part  of  Turkey,  our  Islam  was 
not  in  the  least  threatened.  By  this  declara- 
tion Turkey  has  not  only  ruined  herself,  but 
she  has  also — and  this  is  far  more  regrettable 
— endangered  our  whole  religion.  We  hold 
that  she  has  thereby  forfeited  all  her  rights 
as  protectress  ot?  Islam. 

"Turkey  can  never  justify  herself  for 
having  proclaimed  the  'Holy  War'  for  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  Austro-Germans,  the  secular 
enemies  of  Islam,  and  she  will  be  responsible 
to  the  Sherifate.  We  Musselmans  of  Bosnia- 
Herzegovina,  who  well  know  the  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  State  called  Austria,  are  in  a 
better  position  than  others  to  say  what  use 
Austria  has  made  of  our  religion. 

"Therefore  the  Musselman  youth  of  Bos- 
nia-Herzegovina cannot  but  hail  with  joy  the 
movement  of  the  Arabs  who  have  risen  in  de- 
fence of  our  religion,  and  rejoice  in  their 
action.  We  cannot  conceal  the  fact  that  our 
sympaties  are  always  on  the  side  of  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  the  defence  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  religious  and  national  freedom." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

FRENCH  BOOKS. 


36.  La  retraite  de  Serbie,  par  Louis  L. 
Thomson,     Medecin     major,     Paris, 
Hachette  &  Co. 

37.  Pierre  Bertrand.  L'Autriche  a  voulu 
la  grande  guerre.  Paris.  1916. 

38.  La  Serbie  et  Kossovo,  par  le  Dr.  T. 
Georgevitch,  Paris,  1916. 

39.  La    Question    de    1'Adriatique,    par 
Charles  Vellay.  Paris.  1915.  (Literai- 
rie  Chapelat). 

40.  Le    Plan    Pangermaniste    demasque. 
Par  Andre  Cheradame.   (Paris,  Plon- 
Nourrit  A  Cie,  1916). 

41.  Le   Banat,   par   Gregoire   Yakchitch. 
Paris.  (Plon-Nourrit  &  Cie.  1916). 

42.  Le  Probleme  Italo  —  slave,  par  P.  T. 
de  Sakolovic.   (Paris,  Plon-Nourrit  & 
Cie.)  1916. 

44.  Le  Probleme  italo-slave,  par    J.    T. 
(Paris,  Plon-Nourrit  &  Cie.  1916). 

45.  L 'Autriche-Hongrie  en  guerre  centre 
ses  sujet,  par  Pierre  de  Lanux  et  Mi- 
lan  Toplica.    (Paris,   Plon-Nourrit   & 
Cie.,  1915). 

46.  L 'Unite  Yougoslave  (manifeste  de  lo 
jeunene  Serbe,  Croat  et  Slovine  reu- 
nie).    (Paris,     Plon-Nourrit     &     Cie. 
1915). 

47.  Les  Yougoslaves,  lour  paise,  leur  ave- 
nir,  par  H.  Hinkovic.  (Paris,  Librai- 
rie  Felix  Alcan,  1916). 

48.  La  Grande  Serbie,  par  E.  Denis.  (Pa- 
ris 1915.  Librairie  Delagrave.) 


49.  La  Yougoslavie,  par  Pierre  de  Lanux, 
(Paris,  Payot,  1916). 

50.  L 'epopee  Serbe,  par  H.  Barby,  (Paris 
1916). 

51.  L'Autriche  et  la  Hongrie  de  demain, 
par  le  Dr  A.  Chervin,  (Paris,  Berger- 
Levrault,  1916). 

52.  Les  Yougoslaves    au  point    de    vue 
ethnique.     Leur  union  nationale,  par 
le  Dr  A.  Chervin.   (Paris,  L 'Associa- 
tion francaise  pour  1'Avancement  des 
Sciences,  1916). 

53.  Les  persecutions     des     Yougoslaves. 
Proces  politiques   (1908-1916).  Avan- 
propos    de    Victor     Berard.     (Paris, 
Plon-Nourrit  &  Cie.  1916). 

54.  Le  Regime  Politique  d'Autriche-Hun- 
grie   en   Bosnie-Herzegovine.     A   les 
Proces  de  Houte    Trahison,    par    un 
groupe  d'  Homines  politique    yougo- 
slaves,   (Paris,  Zupremerie  Nouvelle- 
Aunemane.  1916). 

55.  Balcanicus.  La  Bulgaria ;    ses    ambi- 
tion, sa  trahison,  (1915). 

56.  La  liquidation  de  PAutriche-Hungrie, 
par  Louis  Leger,  (Paris.  1915). 

57.  Avec  Parmee  d'  Orient.  Dardanelles, 
Serbie,  Salonique  (avril  1915  —  Jan- 
vier 1916)  par.  Joseph  Vassal,  (Paris, 
Plon-Nourrit  &  Cie.  1916). 

58.  La  Hongrie  d'hier  A  de  demain,  par 
Andre    Dubosco,     (Paris,    Blond    et 
Gay,  1916). 


PART  V. 


THE  JUGOSLAV  VOLUNTEERS. 


Even  during  the  Balkan  war  many  Jugo- 
slavs from  Austria-Hungary  have  deserted  in- 
to Serbo-Montenegrin  armies  and  fought  on 
their  soil. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  war  all  those  Ju- 
go-slavs  from  Austria-Hungary  who  happened 
to  be  in  Serbia  and  Montenegro  at  that  time 
and  whose  numbers  exceeded  two  thousand, 
placed  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  the  Serb- 
ian and  Montenegrin  authorities.  Whoever 
from  the  younger  generation  could,  he  immi- 
grated during  the  first  months  of  the  war  into 
Serbia  and  Montenegro.  A  considerable  num- 
ber of  such  deserters  came  from  Dalmatia,  but 
the  greatest  numbers  fled  from  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina.  During  the  fighting  in  1914  a 
great  number  of  Jugo-slav  soldiers  from  Aus- 
tro-Hungary  surrendered  readily  and  of  whom 
several  thousands  later  joined  of  their  own 
free  will  either  the  fighting  line  or  the  police 
forces  or  the  civil  service  of  Serbia  and  Monte- 
negro. There  were  entire  companies  and  in- 
deed whole  battalions  from  the  Austro-Hunga- 
rian  armies  who  passed  over  to  the  Serbian 
side :  thus  a  whole  regiment  from  Dalmatia, 
has  passed  over  with  all  officers,  banners, 
arms,  music  and  equipment  to  the  Serbian  side. 
During  the  Serbian  retreat  in  the  winter  of 
1915  the  greatest  number  of  the  Austrian  war 
prisoners  of  Slav  nationality  joined  the  Serb- 
ian fighting  lines,  and  althoug^b,  all  the 
prisoners  were  at  liberty  either  to  remain  in 
Serbia  or  to  return  to  the  Austrian  lines,  none 
from  the  Jugo-slav  prisoners  remained  in 
Serbia.  None  of  the  war  prisoners  would  re- 
main but  all  joined  the  Serbian  armies  in  their 
retreat  through  Albania.  Even  at  this  moment 
there  are  in  the  Serbian  army  great  numbers 
of  Jugo-slav  volunteers  from  Austria. 

In  the  very  beginning  of  this  war  many 
Slavs,  especially  the  Czechs  and  Jugo-Slav,  sur- 
rendered themselves  to  the  Russians  where- 
ever  an  opportunity  presented  itself.  This  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  in  the  first  engage- 
ments around  Lvov  (Lemberg)  the  greater 
part  of  the  third  army  corps,  composed  of 
pure  Slovenes,  has  reached  Russian  hands,  as 


also  the  thirteenth  army  corps  composed  chief- 
ly of  the  Croatians  forms  the  bulk  of  the  lists 
of  the  war  prisoners  in  Russia.  That  is  the 
only  manner  to  explain  the  fact  that  there  are 
to-day  in  Russia  in  round  numbers  200,000  Ju- 
go-slav, Austrian  soldiers,  who  have  been 
captured. 

The  majority  of  these  prisoners  have  been 
liberated  by  the  Russian  Government,  and  they 
have  volunteered  and  formed  two  complete 
divisions  who  are  being  drilled  under  the 
command  of  the  superior  Serbian  officiers,  as 
also  the  ex-Austrian  officiers  who  have  joined 
those  divisions. 

Besides  there  are  many  Jugo-slav  volun- 
teers in  British  and  French  armies.  It  may  be 
established  that  since  the  beginning  of  this 
war  untill  now  at  least  100,000  Jugo-slavs  have 
participated  or  organized  for  battle  in  the  war 
against  the  Central  Powers. 

All  this  proves  most  persuasively  that  the 
Austrian  Jugo-slavs  long  so  much  for  their  li- 
beration that  they  give  freely  and  in  masses 
their  lives  in  the  struggle  for  liberation  and 
helping  their  Serbian  brothers,  the  Liberators. 

JUGOSLAV  SOLDIERS  IN  THE 
FRENCH  ARMY. 

There  are  many  Jugoslavs  serving  in  the 
French  Foreign  Legion,  and  fighting  bravely 
on  the  side  of  the  gallant  French.  One  of 
them,  Thomas  Goricki,  was  recently  mortally 
wounded,  and  we  fear  that  he  has  since  died. 
He  was  a  brave  and  gallant  boy,  and  was  de- 
corated for  valour.  As  far  back  as  on  Feb.  8 
the  Paris  Temps  brought  the  following  notice 
about  him,  sent  by  one  of  its  correspondents. : 

"Thomas  Goricki,  from  Virovitica  (Croa- 
tia), private  in  the  marching  regiment  of  the 
Foreign  Legion,  at  present  on  leave  in  Paris, 
came  to  see  me,  and  told  me  the  following: 
'As  I  was  in  France  at  the  moment  of  the 
declaration  of  war,  I  hastened  to  enlist  in  the 
Foreign  Legion.  The  medal  of  St.  George 
which  you  see  on  my  breast  was  recently  be- 
stowed on  me  by  His  Majesty  the  Tsar.  Several 
others  of  my  countrymen,  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  on  the  fields  of  battle  by 


42 

deeds  of  dash  or  heroism,  were  similarly  deco- 
rated. All  of  us  Jugoslavs  are  mixed  up  with 
the  Czechs,  and  that  is  why  even  the  French  do 
not  know  that  we  too  are  fighting  on  their 
side.  We  are  fighting  with  enthusiasm  beside 
the  French,  for  their  victory,  which  will  be 
ours  as  well,  because  the  foremost  result  of 
this  victory  must  be  the  dissolution  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, and  consequently  the  deliverance 
of  our  whole  Jugoslav  race  from  the  Austro- 
Magyar  yoke  and  our  reunion  with  resuscitat- 
ed Serbia." 

I 

SOUTHERN  SLAV  VOLUNTEERS  FROM 
RUSSIA. 

Dr.  H.  Hinkovic,  for  the  Jugoslav  Com- 
mittee, gave  following  communication  through 
"Manchester  Guardian",  September  1916: 

According  to  a  Petrograd  despatch  pub- 
lished in  the  papers,  Serbian  troops,  under 
the  command  of  the  Serbian  General  Hadjich, 
have  entered  Rumania  in  order  to  co-operate 
with  the  Russian  and  Rumanian  troops.  Evi- 
dently they  could  only  come  from  Russia.  But 
how  did  they  arrive  there?  And  do  we  not 
know  that  the  remnants  of  the  Serbian  troops 
who  survived  the  Albanian  castrophe  are  at 
present  on  the  Salonika  front?  Kindly  allow 
me  to  unveil  this  mystery. 

These  Serbian  contigents  are  principally 
formed  of  the  Southern  Slav  prisoners  of 
war  who  succeeded  in  surrendering  to  the  Rus- 
sians. The  war  which  the  Germans  and  Ma- 
gyars of  Austria-Hungary  are  waging  against 
Serbia  and  Russia  is  for  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Southern  Slav  (Croats,  Serbs,  and  Slovenes)  a 
fratricidal  one.  To  force  them  to  fight  their 
brothers  and  kinsmen  is  a  crime  unparalleled 
in  history.  Thousands  of  young  men  succeed- 
ed in  escaping  from  Austria-Hungary,  and 
other  thousands  who  flocked  from  both  Ameri- 
cas and  the  British  over-seas  dominions  joined 
the  Serbian  army  as  volunteers  and  helped  to 
win  its  magnificent  victories.  There  are  also 
Southern  Slavs  in  the  British  and  French  ranks. 
Tens  of  thousands  are  working  in  American, 
British,  and  French  ammunition  factories. 
Those  who  have  been  by  force  enrolled  in  the 
Austro-Hungarian  armies  surrendered  in  mass- 
es wherever  there  was  an  opportunity.  It  was 
the  Southern  Slav  Committee  which  took  the 


JTHB   SOUTHERN   SLAV'S  APPEAL 


initiative  of  forming  volunteer  contigents  of 
Southern  Slavs  captured  by  Russians.  At  our 
appeal  our  heroes  rushed  from  all  parts  of  the 
vast  Russsian  Empire  to  perform  their  sacred 
duty.  Enthusiastically  they  offered  their  young 
lives  to  a  noble  cause.  This  cause  is  to  crush 
their  gaolers — the  Germans  and  Magyars;  to 
destroy  their  prison — Austria-Hungary ;  to  free 
themselves,  and  to  establish  with  Serbia  an 
independent  State  embracing  the  whole  Jugo- 
slav race. 

There  are  those  who  ask  if  the  Croats  and 
'Slovenes  really  wish  to  join  the  Serbs.  The 
Jugoslav  volunteers  who  entered  Rumania  and 
those  who  from  every  possible  part  rush  to 
Salonika  to  enlarge  the  number  of  the  Serbian 
fighters  answer  this  question  in  an  incontest- 
able manner.  They  are  all  ready  to  shed  their 
blood  with  their  Serbian  brothers  with  a  com- 
mon enthusiasm  for  their  common  fatherland, 
for  their  common  national  ideals. 


FRANKFURTER  ZEITUNG,  10,  16th,  has 
an  article  from  its  correspondent  Alolf  Koes- 
ter.  "The  news  that  there  are  Russian  troops 
fighting  in  Dobrudja,  under  the  Rumanian 
command,  must  be  confirmed;  it  is  a  fact 
though,  that  on  the  Roumanian  side  there  is 
one  Serbian  division  in  which  besides  others, 
there  are  a  number  of  Austro-Hungarian  vo- 
lunteers. The  Serbian  officiers  in  command 
have  come  fron  Corfu  to  Russia,  around 
England...." 

THE  GLOBE  (N.  Y.),  of  September  17th, 
has  received  the  following  from  Lausanne ;. 
Some  time  ago  the  telegraphic  news  has  stated 
that  there  are  a  number  of  Serbian  troops  in 
Odessa,  Russia.  We  are  able,  now,  to  give 
some  authentic  news  about  this  unusual  phe- 
nomen.  From  the  large  number  of  prisoners  of 
war  captured  by  Russia,  more  then  one  half 
of  them,  or  about  700,000  are  Slav,  Rouma- 
nians or  Italians.  Russia  did  not  ask  one 
prisoner  of  war  to  volunteer  into  the  army, 
but  thousands  of  prisoners ;  Croat,  Bosnian  and 
Herzegovinian  have  asked  to  be  enrolled  in  a 
Serbian  Corps.  Their  wishes  have  been  grant- 
ed and  last  May,  one  hundred  and  thirty  Serb- 
ian Officiers  have  gone  to  Russsia  to  organize 
these  volunteers.  Since  then  the  number, 
without  doubt,  has  risen  considerably. 

This  movement  is  of  more  political  then 
military  consideration  and  it  will  no  doubt, 
be  of  great  significance  for  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian Slavs." 


ti  SotifHEttN  SLAV'S 

THE   JUGOSLAV   VOLUNTEERS   IN   THE 

BATTLE    OF    DOBRUDJA, 

SEPTEMBER  1916. 


The  first  Jugoslav  division,  numbering 
25,000  men,  has  given  an  excellent  account  of 
themselves  in  the  big  battle  fought  the  later 
part  of  September  in  Dobrudja.  This  division 
is  composed  entirely  ot  ex-Austrian  soldiers 
that  were  made  prisoneres  of  war  in  Russia 
and  now  are  volunteering  into  the  army.  They 
were  on  the  left  of  the  battle  line  covering 
the  town  of  Constanza.  The  position  of  the 
Allied  army  was  extremely  bad,  and  when  the 
lines  started  to  waver  the  time  came  for  our 
volunteers  to  go  into  the  battle  under  the 
leadership  of  he  high  Serbian  officers.  The 
enemy  stormed  the  lines  of  this  particular  di- 
vision eighteen  times  without  success.  Furious 
at  such  resistance,  Mackensen  ordered  cavalry 
to  storm  the  lines  but  our  boys  broke  the  enemy 
lines  with  bombs  and  bayonets.  Five  thou- 
sand Germans  were  killed  and  eight  big  guns 
and  sixteen  mittrailleuse  composed  the  booty 
taken  from  the  Germans.  The  Second  Jugo- 
slav division  has  been  also  formed  and  with 
the  first  one  it  will  make  a  special  Jugoslav 
Corps  under  the  command  of  the  Serbian 
general. 

This  has  been  also  noted  by  the  Austrian 
Press  and  the  Roumanian  high  command  has 
complimented  our  volunteers. 

Even  the  Russian  Tsar  on  the  occassion 
of  the  review  of  the  Jugoslav  troops  at  Odesa 
has  congratulated  our  troops  for  its  bravery. 

THE  PROCLAMATION  OF  GEN.  2IVKOVI6 
TO  THE  JUGOSLAV  VOLUNTEERS. 

M.  Zivkovic,  Serbian  commander  and  gen- 
eral adjutant  to  His  Majesty  the  King. 

The  Novoe  Vremja,  leading  Russian  news- 
paper, published  in  Petrograd,  Oct.  17,  has 
brought  the  following  order  of  the  day,  given 


by  General  M.  Zivkovic,  commander  of  the 
Jugoslav  volunteers  in  Russia. 

"I  consider  myself  fortunate  that  his 
Majesty  our  beloved  King  Peter  has  given  me 
the  command  of  the  volunteer  corps,  which  is 
composed  of  the  sons  of  the  Serbo-Croat-Slo- 
vene people,  and  of  our  brothers  Czechs  and 
Slovaks.  I  am  especially  glad  to  see  you  all 
united,  of  your  own  free  will,  in  the  blessed 
land  of  the  defender  of  Slavs,  the  great  Russia. 
I  am  confident  that  the  long  awaited  day,  the 
day  of  the  liberation  and  the  union  of  the  Jugo- 
slav people  and  the  liberation  of  the  Czechs  and 
Slovaks  from  the  Austrian  yoke,  has  arrived. 

In  the  past,  we  have  always  been  cogni- 
zant of  our  peril  and  so  for  centuries  we  had 
to  fight  our  enemies.  Today,  as  participants 
in  this  great  war  for  rights,  we  can  see  more 
clearly,  better  than  ever  before,  that  the  safe- 
ty of  the  Jugoslavs  lies  in  unity  and  solidarity. 
I  can  see  that  your  young  hearts  are  full  with 
this  idea,  and  I  as  your  commander  can  testify 
that  you  have  been  fighting  for  it  as  heroes, 
as  well  as  your  brothers  from  Sumava,  and  the 
first  division's  heroical  sacrifice  is  the  best 
proof  of  it. 

Heroes,  do  not  forget  for  a  moment  that 
in  this  war  against  our  wicked  enemies,  not 
only  the  survival  of  the  Kingdom  of  Serbia  is 
at  stake,  but  the  whole  question  of  unification 
of  all  Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes,  in  one  insep- 
arable state  of  Jugoslavia,  as  well  as  the  future 
of  our  sister  countries,  Bohemia  and  Slovak- 
land. 

Serbia  has  proved  to  the  world  that  her 
existence  is  not  worth  while  without  being 
united  with  her  sisters,  Croatia  and  Slovenia, 
Bosnia-Herzegovina,  Montenegro  and  Dalma- 
tia,  Srijem,  Backa  and  Banat,  and  without  free 
Bohemia  and  Slovakland.  In  volunteering  to 
fight  for  Jugoslavia,  you  are  fulfilling  the  vow 
of  your  great  teachers:  "Love  your  brother, 
whatever  his  faith." 


?HB  SOUTHERN  SLAV'S  APPBAJ- 

LORD  CROMER  ON  THE  JUGOSLAVS 

(From  "The  Spectator",  August,  1916.) 


"Some  of  the  smaller  countries  of  the 
world  owe  their  importance  largely  to  the 
accident  of  their  geographical  position.  Egypt 
and  Belgium  are  cases  in  point.  Serbia  is 
another.  Serbia  occupies  a  position  of  the 
highest  strategical  and  political  importance. 
'Just  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  Serbia  lay  across 
the  path  of  the  Turkish  conquerors  moving 
westwards,  so  last  autumn  she  blocked  the  path 
of  the  German  conquerors  moving  eastwards.' 
It  cannot  be  too  clearly  understood  that  the 
Drang  nach  Osten  has  constituted  the  corner- 
stone of  the  foundations  on  which  all  recent 
German  policy  has  been  built.  The  fact  that 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war  the  efforts 
of  the  German  General  Staff  appeared  to  be 
exclusively  directed  to  reaching  Paris  some- 
what obscured  this  view  of  the  question.  The 
British  public  were  disposed  to  think  that 
German  action  in  1914  was  analogous  to  that 
of  1870.  In  reality,  no  such  analogy  existed. 
In  1870,  the  Germans  were  fighting  to  secure 
German  unity  and  nothing  more.  This  almost 
necessarily  led  to  a  conflict  with  France.  In 
1914,  the  French  contest  was  merely  a  side- 
show. The  defeat  of  the  French  Army  and  the 
occupation  of  Paris  were  mainly  regarded  as 
indispensable  preludes  to  the  execution  of  an 
Eastern  policy  which  had  long  been  contem- 
plated. This  became  apparent  when  the 
advance  to  Paris  was  checked.  The  true  cha- 
racter of  the  war  became  manifest  when  King 
Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  threw  off  the  mask  and 
events  developed  in  Mesopotamia.  The  real 
objective  of  the  German  Goverment  was  then 
revealed.  That  objective  had  been  explained 
by  numerous  German  writers  long  before  the 
war  commenced." 

Dealing  with  various  ways  of  combating 
Germany's  sinister  and  ambitious  projects, 
Lord  Cromer  says:  "One  of  them  is  to  main- 
tain intact  that  naval  supremacy  which  excites 
the  boundless  wrath  of  Count  Reventlow,  and 
which  has  induced  him  to  term  Great  Britain 
the  'Vampire  of  the  Continent.'  But  this  alone 
would  not  suffice  to  secure  the  object  in  view. 
Another  highly  efficacious  method  would  be 
to  adopt  the  policy  advocated  by  Dr.  Seton- 
Watson,  and  described  by  Prince  Alexander  of 
Serbia  as  'the  union  in  one  single  Fatherland 
of  all  the  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes,  who  are 


one  people  with  the  same  traditions,  the  same 
tongue,  the  same  tendencies,  but  whom  an  evil 
fate  has  divided.'  Further,  Bohemia  must  be 
rendered  autonomous.  The  disintegration  of 
Austria  would  be  a  necessary  consequence  of 
these  changes.  The  German  provinces  of 
Austria  would  fall  to  Germany.  There  is  no 
reason  why  they  should  not  do  so.  Their 
adjunction  would  be  in  strict  conformity  with 
the  application  of  those  Nationalist  principles 
which  are  generally  favoured  in  all  democratic 
countries.  Moreover,  the  addition  of  a  South 
German  population  to  the  German  Empire 
would  possibly  strengthen  the  revolt  against 
that  disastrous  Prussian  hegemony  which  has 
caused  such  fatal  results,  and  which  may  not 
improbably  receive  a  check  from  the  Germans 
themselves  when  the  present  war  is  con- 
cluded." 

Lord  Cromer  concludes: — 

"The  formation  of  a  strong  Southern  Slav 
State,  which  'would  form  a  barrier  against 
Teutonic  aggression,  ought  not  to  encounter 
any  opposition  in  Italy.  Its  creation  would  be 
distinctly  favourable  to  Italian  interests.  The 
Hungarians  will,  of  course,  be  violently  op- 
posed to  any  such  political  combination.  The 
spirit  which  still  animates  the  Magyars  is  the 
same  as  that  proclaimed  by  Kossuth,  who  was 
only  a  Liberal  when  direct  Magyar  interests 
were  at  stake,  when  he  said:  'I  know  no  Croa- 
tian nationality'.  This  opposition  should  not, 
however,  be  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
realization  of  the  project.  On  grounds  alike  of 
sentiment  and  interest,  the  establishment  of  a 
Southern  Slav  Federation  merits  not  merely 
the  sympathy,  but  the  full  support  of 
the  British  Government.  Thus,  Dr.  Seton- 
Watson  says:  'The  small  and  land-locked 
Serbia  of  the  past  will  be  transformed  into  a 
strong  and  united  Southern  Slav  State  upon 
the  eastern  shore  of  the  Adriatic,  no  longer 
seething  with  unrest  as  the  result  of  Magyar 
misrule  in  Croatia  and  Austrian  economic 
tariffs,  but  free  at  last  to  develop  a  national 
life  which  has  resisted  five  centuries  of 
Turkish  oppression.'  Moreover,  by  the  adop- 
tion of  this  plan  not  only  would  an  act  of 
political  justice  be  performed,  but  a  very 
valuable  guarantee  for  the  future  peace  of  the 
world  would  be  secured." 


PART    VI 


CROATS  AND  SLOVENES  IN  AUSTRIA- HUNGARY 
AND  THE  SOUTHERN  SLAV  UNITY. 


CROATIA  AND   NATIONAL  UNITY. 

From  the  fifteenth  century  to  the  present 
day  every  Croatian  Parliament  has  consistently 
demanded  that  the  national  territory  should 
not  be  divided,  but  united  in  one  state.  Croa- 
tia has  always  been  the  home  of  every  move- 
ment in  favour  of  Jugoslav  unity.  Her  greatest 
men,  no  less  than  every  one  of  her  nineteenth- 
century  Parliaments,  have  never  ceased  to 
preach  the  doctrine  of  Jugoslav  unity  to  the 
nation,  especially  to  the  Serbs  and  Croats.  It 
was  because  Austria  and  Germany  realized 
that  a  union  between  Croats  and  Slovenes  on 
the  one  hand,  and  'Serbs  and  Croats  on  the 
other,  would  endanger  their  supremacy  in  the 
Adriatic,  that  the  Central  Powers  provoked 
this  war,  through  which  they  hoped  to  deal  the 
Jugoslavs  a  mortal  blow  by  crushing  the  New 
Serbia  of  the  Karageorgevic,  that  most  dan- 
gerous focus  for  the  creation  of  a  future  Ju- 
goslav state. 

In  1712  the  Croatian  Parliament  accepted 
the  Austrian  "Pragmatic  Sanction"  before  the 
Hungarian  Parliament  did  so,  and  independ- 
ently of  its  decision.  The  Pragmatic  Sanction 
includes  a  clause  to  the  effect  that  the  Croatian 
nation  transfers  "the  Eoyal  Power  and  Prero- 
gative and  the  Rights  of  the  Kingdom  to  such 
descendants  of  the  house  of  Austria  in  the  fe- 
male line  as  shall  become  possessed  of  Styria, 
Carnia,  and  Carinthia,"  thus  emphasizing  the 
demand  of  the  nation  that  the  Slovene  coun- 
tries should  not  be  divided  from  Croatia. 


The  national  awakening  of  Croatia  and 
the  Croats  began  with  the  so-called  "Illyrian 
movement"  in  1832.  This  movement  was  es- 
sentially Jugoslav  in  its  character,  having  for 
its  ideal  the  union  of  the  whole  nation  from 
Skutari  to  Varna  and  the  Triglav. 


In  1848,  during  the  reign  of  Ban  Jellacic 
and  at  the  time  of  the  war  against  the  Ma 
gyars,  who  tried  even  then  to  Magyarize  Croa- 


tia, the  Croatian  Parliament  proclaimed  "the 
unity  of  the  Serbs  and  Croats"  and  their 
brotherhood  in  arms,  adopting  "all  Serbian 
claims  as  our  own,  even  as  we  form  one  nation 
with  the  Serbs,  and  will  never  permit  ourselves 
to  be  divided  from  them."  The  Parliament 
further  demanded  that  the  provinces  of  Dal- 
matia,  Istria,  Gorizia,  Carnia,  Carniola,  and 
Southern  Styria  should  be  included  in  the 
union  of  Croatia  and  the  Serbian  Vojvodina. 

When  in  1860  the  Austrian  Constitution 
was  re-established,  and  the  Conference  con- 
voked by  the  Ban  of  Croatia  was  invited  to 
express  its  views,  it  replied  by  demanding  that 
"all  Dalmatia,  and  at  least  the  Quarnero  Is- 
lands of  Krk,  Cres,  and  Losinj  belonging  to 
Istria,  as  well  as  the  former  Croatian  districts 
of  Volosco,  Labin,  and  Novigrad  should  be 

united  with  Croatia." 

*  *     * 

The  Croatian  Parliament  of  1861  and  1865 
again  affirmed  the  national  unity  of  Croats 
and  Serbs,  and  demanded  the  territorial  union 
of  all  Jugoslav  lands  in  Austria. 

*  *     # 

Even  under  the  regime  of  Count  Khuen 
Hedervary  (1883-1903),  the  most  corrupt  ever 
known  in  Croatia,  the  Croatian  Parliament  in- 
sisted upon  the  necessity  of  free  and  brotherly 
intercourse  between  Serbs  and  Croats;  and 
the  language  used  in  all  Government  offices 
and  schools  was  officially  designated  as  the 
"Serbo-Croat  language." 

Since  1906  the  majority  in  the  Croatian 
Parliament  has  consisted  of  members  of  the 
Serbo-Croat  Coalition,  a  group  of  parties  which 
has  never  failed  to  obtain  a  majority  at  all 
elections,  even  upon  occasions  when  the 
Government  has  done  its  utmost  to  terrorize 
the  electors.  The  Serbo-Croat  Coalition  has  for 
its  party  programme  the  union  of  Croats, 
Serbs,  and  Slovenes.  The  opposition  consists 
of  a  few  members  belonging  to  a  small  party 
which  is  both  Austrophil  and  Serbophobe.  The 
Magyaropbil  party  came  to  an  end  many  years 
ago. 


46 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S   APPEAL 

CROATS  AND  MAGYARS. 


We  quote  the  following  extracts  (penned 
in  1860  and  1862)  from  the  writings  of  Mons. 
Fran  jo  Racki,  the  well-known  Croatian  histo- 
rian and  politician,  and  first  President  of  the 
Jugoslav  Academy  of  Art  and  Science,  found- 
ed in  1867  by  Bishop  Strossmayer  (vide  Vla- 
dimir Zagorki,  Francois  Racki  et  la  Renais- 
sance Scientifique  et  Politique  de  la  Croatic. 
Paris,  1909)  :— 

"If  the  Balkan  Peninsula  had  heen  grant- 
ed the  centuries  of  comparative  peace  necessa- 
ry to  the  development  of  state  society,  the 
racial  differences  would  have  been  gradually 
obliterated,  and  the  various  nationalities  amal- 
gamated in  one  national  community,  which 
would  have  proved  strong  enough  to  constitute 
an  independent  State  between  the  Adriatic  and 
the  Black  Sea.  The  principal  reason  why  the 
Jugoslavs  have  not  taken  that  place  in  history 
to  which  they  are  entitled  both  by  their  num- 
bers and  their  geographical  position,  is  that 
they  never  succeeded  in  creating  their  own 
body  politic. 

"The  treaty  between  Hungary  and  Croa- 
tia in  the  twelfth  century  not  only  interrupted 
the  growth  of  the  Croatian  state,  but  post- 
poned the  development  of  Jugoslav  unity  for 
centuries.  Every  thinking  man  must  admit 
that  South  Eastern  Europe  owes  its  present 
aspect  by  which  it  is  a  menace  to  civilization, 
only  to  the  absence  of  a  strong  Jugoslav  state, 
which  would  have  prevented  the  Turks  from 
establishing  themselves  in  Europe. 

"Hungarian  policy  has  always  aimed  at 
undermining  Croatian  independence,  so  that 
Hungary  might  reach  the  sea  across  Croatia, 
just  as  in  former  times  (this  was  written  in 
1860)  Hungary  sougfit  to  dominate  Bosnia, 
Serbia,  Bulgaria,  and  Rumania,  so  that  she 
might  carry  her  power  as  far  as  the  Balkan 
Mountains  and  the  Lower  Danube.  The  idea  of 
Jugoslav  unity,  no  matter  whether  it  appeared 
in  Croatia,  Serbia,  or  Bosnia,  never  had  a  more 
determined  or  ruthless  enemy  than  Hungary. 

"We  see  in  Jugoslav  solidarity  the  strong- 
est guarantee  for  our  national  existence;  but, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  the  Magyars  see  in  it  the 
grave  of  their  own  nationality.  We  look  upon 
the  liberation  of  the  East  as  a  primary  condi- 
tion for  a  better  national  future,  whereas  the 
Magyars  look  upon  it  as  the  beginning  of  their 
downfall  or  at  least  as  the  end  of  their  claims 
to  supremacy. 

' '  The  Croats  can  honestly  say  to  the  Serbs : 
'we  do  not  aim  at  supremacy,  because  there 


can  be  no  question  of  supremacy  between  two 
branches  of  the  same  nation.  Whatever  you 
may  achieve,  we  will  gladly  acknowledge  it  and 
join  hands  with  you.  You  are  masters  of  the 
Drina.  May  God  bless  your  standards  when 
you  cross  the  river." 

We  will  also  quote  Tadija  Smiciklas,  the 
author  of  the  first  systematically  compiled} 
history  of  Croatia,  late  President  of  the  Jugo- 
slav Academy  (died  1914).  In  1888  he  wrote 
the  following: — 

"The  Serbs  and  Croats  are  one  nation.  The 
best  and  foremost  sons  of  our  nation  bow 
their  heads  before  this  highest  principle ;  but  the 
idea  of  nationality  can  only  be  realized  by 
national  union." 

SPEECH  BY  MR.  TRUMBI6,  IN  THE  DAL- 
MATIAN DIET  IN  1903,  ON  THE  PAN- 
GERMAN  PERIL  AND  THE  NEED 
FOR  A  UNION  OF  THE  EN- 
DANGERED NATIONS. 

(Mr.  Trumbic  is  the  President  of  the  Ju- 
goslav Committee  in  London). 

In  1903  Croatia  was  convulsed  by  a  na- 
tional movement  which  aimed  at  freeing  the 
country  from  Magyar  tyranny  as  represented 
by  Count  Khuen  Hedervary.  The  disturbances 
which  arose  in  Croatia  at  the  time,  accom- 
panied by  wholesale  incarcerations  and  nume- 
rous executions  under  martial  law,  found  an 
echo  in  Dalmatia,  in  Istria,  and  in  the  Slovene 
land;  the  idea  of  Jugoslav  communion  of  in- 
terests and  the  national  Serbo-Croat  and  Slo- 
vene unity  was  strenghtened  by  it  and  pulsated 
more  vigorously  than  before.  The  contempt- 
uous attitude  of  Francis  Joseph,  who  would 
not  condescent  to  receive  the  deputies  of  the 
Dalmatian  Diet,  who  petitioned  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  martial  law,  merely  whetted  the  desire 
for  deliverance  and  the  hatred  for  Austria- 
Hungary,  who  wanted  to  force  the  German 
language  upon  discontented  Dalmatia. 

Of  the  leaders  of  that  movement  some  ar 
in  Austrian  prisons,  others  are  safe  obroad,  be- 
yond the  reach  of  Austrian  persecution,  and 
furthering  the  work  of  union  and  deliverance. 
The  Deputy,  Dr.  Trumbic,  now  President  of 
the  Jugoslav  Committee,  made  a  momentous 
speech  at  the  time  (Nov.  7,  1903),  in  which  lie 
exposed  the  methods  which  Austria  employed 


THE    SOUTHERN    SLAV'S    APPEAL 


47 


to  isolate  Dalmatia  from  the  other  Jugoslav 
provinces. 

Criticizing  the  machinations  of  Austria, 
who  was  trying  to  introduce  the  German  lan- 
guage by  force,  Dr.  Trumbic"  said:  "We  d^ 
not  want  a  foreign  language.  The  rights,  sen- 
timents, and  aspirations  of  the  nation  are  on- 
posed  to  it,  because  they  demand  that  pn'd? 
of  place  should  be  given  to  our  native  l«*v 
guage,  both  in  the  Government  offices  and  in 
the  home  administration  of  our  own  country. 
National  sentiment  refuses  to  tolerate  subjec- 
tion to  the  foreigner  within  its  own  borders. 
Our  national  aspirations  are  not  leading  us 
towards  Germanism,  but  towards  liberty.  An 
attempt  is  being  made  to  force  the  German 
language  upon  us  under  the  pretext  of  unify- 
ing the  administration  of  the  State.  But  in  a 
State  desirous  of  possessing  wholesome  and 
sound  foundations  there  can  be  no  needs  be- 
yond the  needs  of  the  people.  And  woe  to 
the  State  in  which  the  interests  of  the  State 
are  not  identical  with  those  of  the  people! 

"Germanism  threatens  to  make  the  aspi- 
rations of  the  Croats  an  impossibility.  Greater 
Germany  is  gravitating  towards  the  South  of 
Europe  to  enslave  under  its  yoke  the  beauti- 
ful lands  which  are  the  heritage  of  the  Croats. 
Germany  is  threatening  the  entire  South  of 
Europe  with  her  plans  of  conquest ;  it  is  a  fact 
recognized  by  all  Europe  except  Austria.  Ger- 
many is  as  great  a  menace  to  the  oppressed 
Croats  as  to  the  Magyar  oppressors,  who  are 
so  intoxicated  by  their  Pan-Magyar  idea  that 
they  fail  to  perceive  that  they  are  only  the 
tool  of  the  Teuton,  to  be  thrown  away  when 
it  has  served  its  turn.  Germany  is  a  peril  not 
only  to  the  non-Germanic  nationalities  in  Aus- 
tria and  the  Balkans,  but  also  to  one  of  the 
great  nations  of  Southern  Europe,  viz.,  our 
neighbour  Italy.  What,  then,  is  the  lesson  we 
must  learn  from  this  peril?  Our  only  lesson 
is,  that  we  must  go  forward  all  united,  and 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  order  to  oppose  a  com- 
mon front  to  the  common  foe. 

"It  is  inevitable  that  the  Croats  should 
seek  for  support  abroad,  seeing  that  we  may 
look  for  help  in  vain  in  this  Monarchy  where 
we  are  isolated  and  oppressed.  The  moral 
support  of  foreign  nations  may  help  us  more 
than  guns.  The  help  of  other  nations  and  the 
conviction  of  Europe  that  our  cause  is  good, 
that  our  claims  are  sacred  and  justified, 
since  they  spring  from  the  right  to  life 
and  existence,  can  alone  change  the  destiny 
of  our  nation,  which  has  seen  nothing  but  in- 


justice and  suffering  in  this  Monarchy  from 
time  immemorial  down  to  this  day.  This 
Monarchy,  which  ought  to  be  a  refuge  for 
small  nations  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  has  be- 
trayed its  trust.  Instead  of  being  a  house  of 
liberty  for  the  nations  and  helping  them  in 
their  progress  and  development,  it  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  slave  market.  Conflicts 
between  nationalities  are  raised,  fictitious  ad- 
ministrative needs  invented  which  are  contra- 
ry to  the  welfare  of  the  peoples  and  solely  ful- 
fil the  purpose  of  protracting  the  present  state 
of  affairs.  It  seems  that  this  Empire  is  incur- 
able. So  long  as  Austria  felt  equal  to  the  task, 
she  oppressed  her  nationalitites  single-handed ; 
when  she  no  longer  felt  equal  to  it,  she  created 
the  Dualism,  handing  over  the  nationalities 
who  lived  in  the  other  half  of  the  Monarchy 
to  the  savage  caprice  of  the  Magyars,  while 
she  continued  her  own  pernicious  labours  in 
her  own  half. 

"The  events  which  have  recently  taken 
place  in  our  Croatian  fatherland  are  calculat- 
ed to  disillusion  even  those  old  champions  who 
hoped  that  the  Monarchy  would  in  the  end 
bring  its  interests  into  harmony  with  those  of 
the  Croatian  people.  Alas,  these  fair  dreams 
are  shattered  and  the  old  champions  are  in  de- 
spair. As  if  all  were  at  an  end,  if  Austria 
will  not  consent  to  be  just.  But  this  despair 
is  out  of  place  so  long  as  the  nation  lives ;  and 
we  have  been  obliged  to  say:  'There  is  no 
justice  in  the  Monarchy  for  the  Croats.'  We 
should  add  at  once:  'Our  nation  has  existed 
before  the  Monarchy,  and  it  will  exist  after 
it.'  (A  voice:  'Both  within  the  Monarchy  and 
without!') 

"Violence  will  have  had  its  day,  and  so 
long  as  a  nation  lives  on  its  own  soil  then, 
so  long  as  it  is  not  dead,  there  is  always  hope 
of  success.  The  younger  generation,  by  re- 
awakening hope  in  the  heart  of  the  nation  and 
looking  to  the  nation  itself  for  support  and 
strenght,  and  abroad  for  moral  support,  will 
carry  on  the  work  of  emancipation,  and  we 
shall  attain  our  goal,  which  is  to  make  the 
Croats  a  nation  which  is  its  own  master.  I 
will  conclude  my  remarks  with  the  words 
with  which  Milan  Samardzic,  leader  of  Krivo- 
sie  insurgents,  welcomed  the  Austrian  General 
Eodic:  'May  God  give  Austria  all  she  desires 
for  us  Croats." 

These  are  the  words  spoken  by  Mr.  Trum- 
bic,  thirteen  years  ago,  with  the  applause  of 
the  Dalmatian  Diet. 


48  THE   SOUTHERN 

FEW     OF     MANY     DECLARATIONS     OF 

POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  CROATIAN 

PARLIAMENT    SINCE    THE 

BEGINNING  OF  WAR. 

When  the  Croatian  Parliament  reassem- 
bled this  year  in  July,  i.  e.,  under  the  most  try- 
ing conditions  of  a  war  atmosphere,  it  declared 
through  the  Speaker,  amids  a  storm  of  enthu- 
siastic applause  from  all  parties,  that  the  Cro- 
ats demand  the  Freedom,  unity,  and  independ- 
ence of  the  nation.  During  the  sittings  sharp 
comments  were  passed  upon  the  Germans  and 
Magyars,  and  upon  the  policy  pursued  by 
Vienna  and  Budapest. 

In  one  of  the  last  sittings  of  the  Zagreb 
Sabor,  Mr.  Vilder,  Serbo-Croat  deputy  and 
editor  of  the  news  paper  Hrvatski  Pokret, 
which  has  been  suspended,  spoke  in  answer  to 
a  press  campaign  inaugurated  against  him  by 
an  Austrophil  journal. 

Mr.  Vilder  said :  "I  am  replying  from  the 
platform  of  a  deputy  because  the  existing 
typographic  conditions  (he  was  referring  to 
the  censorship)  do  not  permit  me  to  reply 
through  the  press  to  the  polemics  of  hostile 
journals.  The  abnormal  conditions  which  pre- 
vail because  of  the  war  are  being  exploited  by 
the  Austrophil  elements.  Every  Serb  and  Croat 
who  does  not  belong  to  the  Frank  party  is 
denounced  as  a  traitor  to  the  State.  As  for 
me,  I  am  accused  of  having  declared  that  the 
idea  of  the  Serbo-Croat  coalition  will  survive 
the  war.  Well,  yes ;  here,  during  the  war  even, 
I  tell  you  frankly  that  the  idea  of  national 
Serbo-Croat  unity  will  live  after  the  war  as  it 
lived  before  it.  I  am  only  re-stating  here  in 
a  few  words  what  thousands  of  the  best  sons 
of  the  Croatian  people  have  said  and  preached. 
It  will  be  just  the  same  in  the  future.  Without 
considering  myself  a  prophet,  I  can  assert  with 
perfect  confidence  that,  even  if  after  the  peace 
treaty  the  frontiers  remain  as  they  are  at 
present,  those  in  power  will  be  obliged  to 
reckon  with  this  idea. ' ' 

Te  sitting  on  June  14,  the  first  of  the  new 
session,  was  opened  by  a  loyalist  speech  by 


SLAV'S   APPEAL 

Mr.  Pero  Magdic  who,  referring  to  the  war 
on  the  Adriatic  front,  said:  ''The  enemy  is 
stretching  his  hand  towards  our  Croatian  sea 
with  the  object  of  depriving  us  of  our  most 
precious  pearl."  Mr.  Veceslav  Vilder,  member 
of  the  Serbo-Croat  Coalition,  spoke  of  his 
attachment  to  the  idea  of  Serbo-Croat  unity 
which  he  does  not  fear  to  defend  in  spite  of  all 
informers. ' ' 

The  same  day,  in  the  Budget  Committee 
of  the  Croatian  Sabor,  Mr.  Alexander  Horvat, 
of  the  Frank  party,  refused  to  vote  for  the 
indemnity,  giving  the  following  reason  for  his 
refusal : — 

"We  have  no  liberty  to  express  our 
thoughts  through  the  press.  Everything  moves 
under  the  rule  of  the  court  martial,  which 
constantly  weighs  upon  Croatia  .  .  .  Political 
censorship  is  pitilessly  rampant — although 
utterly  without  system — in  the  columns  of  our- 
newspapers.  The  Magyar  politicians,  both  in 
the  Goverment  and  in  the  Opposition,  are  free 
to  express  their  views  on  the  future  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  Monarchy,  especially  in  all  that 
concerns  the  conquered  territory  of  the  king- 
dom of  Serbia;  they  discuss  home  and  foreign 
politics,  and  insult  and  provoke  us  at  their 
leisure.  If  we  attempt  to  defend  Croatian 
rights,  or  even  to  copy  what  they  freely  write, 
we  are  inexorably  censored. 


In  the  sitting  of  the  Sabor  on  June  17  Mr. 
Stjepan  Radio,  of  the  peasant  party,  critizised 
the  Hungaro-Croatian  Compromise  and  re- 
gretted the  lacunae  in  the  instruction  received 
by  the  Croatian  youth.  He  complains  of  our 
students'  ignorance  of  foreign  languages, 
especially  of  Russian.  His  party,  which 
accepts  the  integral  unity  of  Croats,  Serbs,  and 
Slovenes,  is  opposed  to  the  Hungaro-Croatian 
Compromise,  which  is  contrary  to  the  national 
unity:  "Conscious  of  being  Slavs  and  Europe- 
ans we  must  endeavour  to  overthrow  the  exist- 
ing Hungarian  Goverment;  the  future  of  the 
Croats  is  safe,  because  they  are  bound  to  the 
West  by  their  intellectual  influence,  and  to 
Russia  by  racial  affinity." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


NO  PHONE  RENEWALS 

HOY  0  3  1987 


41987 


A     000022357     8 


OJ218 


II 

III 


